
Class 
Book 



s>rf?s/76 



GopynghtTSl - 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



MELODIES OF ENGLISH VERSE 



MELODIES OF ENGLISH 
VEKSE 

SELECTIONS FOR MEMORIZING 
CHOSEN AND ARRANGED 

BY 

LEWIS KENNEDY MORSE 





Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard 
Are sweeter ; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on ; 

Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd, 
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone. 

Keats. 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
1910 






COPYRIGHT, I9IO, BY LEWIS KENNEDY MORSE 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



©C1.A268255 






TO HER 

AND TO HER CHILDREN 

ANNA AND ARTHUR 



WILLIAM WATSON 

1858- 
IN PRAISE OF RHYTHM 

Song is no bauble — 
Slight not the songsmith, 
England my mother, 
Maker of men. 

Lo, with the ancient 
Roots of man's nature, 
Twines the eternal 

Passion of song. 

Deep in the world-heart 
Stand its foundations, 
Tangled with all things, 

Twin-made with all. 

Nay, what is Nature's 
Self, but an endless 
Strife toward music, 

Euphony, rhyme? 

Trees in their blooming, 
Tides in their flowing, 
Stars in their circling, 

Tremble with song. 

God on His throne is 
Eldest of poets : 
Unto His measures 

Moveth the Whole. 



From England my Mother 



CONTENTS 

Order of Selections xi 

The Training of the Ear xv 

Part I. Iambic Movement I-LXXI 1 

Part II. Trochaic Movement LXXII-LXXXIII 97 

Part III. Anapaestic Movement LXXXIV-XCIII 115 

Part IV. Dactylic Movement XCIV-C 133 

Part V. Poems of Reverence CI-CVT 143 

Notes 161 

Index of Metres 165 

Index of Writers 179 

Index of First Lines 181 



ORDER OF SELECTIONS 



In Praise of Rhythm Watson 

The Brave Heart Herrick 

Early Spring Tennyson 

Spring Sights and Sounds Wordsworth 

Guiding Saints Vaughan 

Solitude Pope 

To a Mouse Burns . 

Crossing the Bar Tennyson 

The Rainbow Wordsworth 

Comrades Barbauld 

The Bird Vaughan 

Man Goes, Flowers Return Spenser 

The Elixir Herbert 

The Brook Tennyson 

The Children of God Coleridge 

The Angel Choir Coleridge 

The Education of Nature Wordsworth 

Past and Present Hood 

Youthful Age , Jonson . 

The Ocean and its Melody .... Arnold . 

To Evening Collins . 

The Wandering Moon Milton . 

The Fireside Whittier 

Brooding Grief Rossetti 

The Coming of the Wind ..... Tennyson 

The Ballad of Rosabelle Scott . 



vn 
3 
4 
6 
7 
9 
11 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
20 
22 
24 
25 
26 
28 
29 
30 
32 
33 
34 
35, 
36 



Xll 



ORDER OF SELECTIONS 



Comparisons Wotton 

The Hard Man Wordsworth 

Beaching the Boat Browning 

Each and All Emerson 

The Revelation Patmore 

Corinna goes a-Maying Herrick 

The Pale Moon Shelley . 

The Bugle Song Tennyson 

Queen Mab . . . Shakespeare 

Address to his Soldiers Shakespeare 

Life as a Play Shakespeare 

Ambition Shakespeare 

Morning Milton . . 

Skating Wordsworth 

Silent Night Keats . 

Ulysses Tennyson 

The Beauty of Reality Browning 

Ships at Night Morris . 

The Swimmer Marlowe 

On Writing Verse Pope 

The Village Preacher Goldsmith 

Waste Places by the Sea Shelley . 

The Office of Beauty Keats . 

Song of Allegiance Tennyson 

The West Wind Shelley . 

Talks in the Potter's House FitzGerald 

The Fallen Tree Vaughan 

The Elegy Gray . 

Melancholy Keats . 

The Two Rivers Longfellow 

On his Blindness Milton . 



ORDER OF SELECTIONS 



xm 



The Ongoing Ship Wordsworth 

The Crowding World Wordsworth 

Night and Death White . . 

Despondency Shakespeare 

Ozymandias Shelley . 

Great Things and Small Spenser 

The Sounds of Morning Beattie . 

The Ocean Byron . 

Day-Dreams Tennyson 

The Cheerful Day Drayton 

The Grandmother Tennyson 

The Camp at Night Chapman 

Looking Backward Byron . 

A Mood Aldrich 

Recollections of Childhood Wordsworth 

The Oak Tennyson 

Things Loved Shelley . 

Rising Smoke Longfellow 

In a Garden Wither . 

The Guardian Spirit's Farewell . . . Milton . 

The Tiger Blake . 

The Tempest Palmer . 

The Chimes Longfellow 

The Raven Poe . . 

The Promise of the Skies Tennyson 

The Old Familiar Faces Lamb . 

Sleigh Bells Poe . . 

A Greeting of the Morning Browning 

Fleeting Joy Shelley . 

The Cloud Shelley . 

The Solitary Cowper . 



XIV 



ORDER OF SELECTIONS 



The Burial of Sir John Moore .... Wolfe . 

Spring Nash 

The Poplar Field Cowper . 

David Goes to Cure the King .... Browning 

The May Queen Tennyson 

The Incoming Tide Lanier . 

Creative Moments Browning 

The Leaders Arnold . 

The Place for the Nest Browning 

Cradle Song Tennyson 

The Gallop Browning 

The Blacksmith Longfellow 

The Tide Clough . . 

Vastness Tennyson 

Nature Wordsworth 

Love Browning . 

The Hero Tennyson . 

The State Longfellow 

God Watts . . 



123 
125 
126 
127 
128 
130 
135 
136 
137 
138 
139 
140 
141 
145 
147 
149 
150 
152 
154 



For permission to use The Marshes of Glynn from the Poems of Sidney Lanier, 
copyright 1884, 1891, by Mary D. Lanier, the editor is indebted to the publishers, 
Charles Scribner's Sons. 



THE TRAINING OF THE EAR 

The habit of learning poetry by heart is one of the most valu- 
able that a school can give. The memory can be trained to 
hold what is wanted, be it facts till an examination, or beauty 
till old age. Memory in a remarkable way shapes life to what it 
holds. Especially in early childhood, when impressions are per- 
sistent and strong, poetry once learned becomes a large factor 
in education. It works by an agency all its own and grows 
with the growth of him who has learned it. Verses carried in 
the mind create capacity, and in no other way can the young 
so quickly acquire refinement of feeling, increase of intellec- 
tual power, and sure provision for future enjoyment. Reading 
does not bring about these results in anything like the same 
degree. Its impressions are too fleeting. We need to be long 
in the company of beauty, to hold it indeed within us, in order 
to be vitalized by it into creatures of nobler mould. In learn- 
ing lines by heart, the child goes behind the printed page, 
identifies himself with the author, and, sharing his ideas, re- 
creates the poet's emotions. Because committing to memory 
is difficult, it is the more valuable, as causing words to be dwelt 
upon and canvassed, new ones grasped and explored. How 
instructive lapses of memory become ! Trying to recall a line, 
the child puts in a poorer word, perceives it to be poorer, and 
so has the significance of the original freshly revealed. As if 
he were himself a creator, he sees why the words must have 



xvi THE TRAINING OF THE EAR 

fallen just so and in no other way. By such means, too, speech 
acquires ease, range, and precision. 

Methods of learning by heart are as various as the learners. 
For some the chief thing will be the physical mouthing of the 
words, as in a refrain ; with others the eye helps most by pic- 
turing the printed page ; while for the rest the melody or the 
jingle, as carried by the ear, keeps the lines true. All these 
temperamental differences are valuable, and it may be well to 
let the order in which the poems are learned turn on individ- 
ual pleasure. The order in which they are here printed indi- 
cates nothing as to the best order for committing to memory. 
Indeed, age and liking may frequently require the teacher to 
choose only a part of a selection. But whatever one's age may 
be, the ability to repeat verse from memory is a necessary 
stage in the growth of appreciation. If the book is begun at 
seven, by the time one is eighteen he might possess almost the 
whole collection, to go with him as an inheritance of worth into 
every year of his life. 

Already there exist many admirable collections of verse 
for children, and some of these will, it is hoped, be used to 
supplement this little book. But none has precisely its aim. 
There are two contrasted aspects in all verse : thought with 
its attendant emotion, and ordered sound through which 
thought and emotion are given expression. The sensuous and 
technical form appeals to the ear, the matter or contents — 
consisting of scenes, events, and thoughts — to the intellect. 
Of these two contrasted, yet ever allied, aspects of poetry, it 
might seem that the intellectual and visual would be the 
proper one to put forward for children, and other collections 
have generally been guided by this view. But it is the technical 



THE TRAINING OF THE EAR xvii 

side which is made prominent here, and, strangely enough, 
this is the order of nature. In nursery rhymes, the earliest 
poetry to be learned by heart, there is nothing rational. All 
is melody. As there is an ear for music, there is as truly an 
ear for rhythm, and the love of Mother Goose shows how rhythm 
and rhyme rule the early years, and how strongly music and 
metrical utterance are desired. Those fondly loved cadences 
reveal intellectual elements but slightly. It is the ear which 
they subtly and accurately train. But too often, after the pe- 
riod of nursery jingles, there is an abrupt leap into the poetry 
of thought and feeling. Instead, the beginner should be car- 
ried on into rhythms and rhymes of greater subtlety ; and this 
book may be his guide during this second formative period. 
It seeks to restore nature to her rights. What is true of music 
is true of poetry : response to music is to be had in high 
degree only by a disciplined ear. So, too, some preliminary 
training in the distinctive melodies of verse will ease the ap- 
proach to its ideas and emotions. Rhythmic sound is ever the 
instinctive expression of emotion. Instead then of concen- 
trating attention on the intricacies of thought and feeling 
which verse embodies, this book appeals primarily to the 
ear, and by stimulating growth in instinctive sensuous appre- 
hension, prepares for more readily seizing what is intellectual 
and passionate in poetry. 

The teacher, however, may wish for a few suggestions in re- 
gard to poetic technicalities, in order that, being himself com- 
pletely conscious, he may the better keep the pupil in uncon- 
sciousness. That will be the best condition for a considerable 
time. If the ear is suitably trained, comprehension of metrical 
structure may wisely be deferred to more reflective years. 



xviii THE TRAINING OF THE EAR 

Poetry, like music and the arts, is based on the repetition of 
similar parts. In poetry this repetition in its most elementary 
form appears in the foot. The foot is the basal unit. It is a 
definitely planned group of sounds, and on its technical side 
is hard and rigid. The kinds most frequently used are four. In 
the iambus the contrasted sounds are an unaccented followed 
by an accented, represented here by + '. In the trochee this 
contrast is reversed, and appears as ' + . The anapaest prefixes 
another unaccented sound to the iambus which becomes + + ', 
while the dactyl adds an unaccented syllable to the trochee, 
and results in ' + + . The foot repeated again and again 
makes the line. For marking out this new unit of the line, and 
to relate it to another similar unit, rhyme is used. Rhyme em- 
phasizes the line and coordinates it with other lines. Where the 
metrical scheme runs on through several lines, the group consti- 
tutes a stanza or third form of unity. Out of repeated stanzas 
a poem may be fashioned. It will therefore be seen that from 
first to last some kind of repetition has bound together the whole 
poetic structure. But rhyme and stanza must not be supposed 
to be essential for verse. They may be used or not according 
to the intended purpose. Emotion dictates structure. Where 
continuity of feeling is the chief thing, rhyme, and still more 
the stanza, may easily interfere. In such case the verse is left 
blank. On the contrary, when feeling is complex, a compli- 
cated system of rhyme may be used, as in the extreme in- 
stance of the Spenserian stanza, to detach its parts while at 
the same time knitting them into an elaborate whole. The 
simplest forms of rhyming structure are the couplet, the trip- 
let, and the quatrain or four-lined stanza with its various 
rhyming systems. Because so simple, these schemes lend them- 



THE TRAINING OF THE EAR xix 

selves to a wide variety of uses. In so strongly emphasizing, 
however, the systematic character of verse, there is danger of 
suggesting mechanical accuracy. Nothing of the kind will be 
found in true poetry. Hoping to aid the teacher in tracing 
plans of metrical structure, a detailed scansion of parts of eight 
poems is here printed, five representing metres tolerably reg- 
ular and three markedly irregular. The suggestions of these 
diagrams are, however, only tentative. A mechanical scheme 
must not be slavishly followed. The fall of the accent is largely 
regulated by feeling, and is therefore frequently debatable. 

Since the chief gain of committing to memory comes through 
the necessity we are under to examine beauty closely and long, 
passages have been chosen which can bear this intimate and 
testing experience as well as the wear and tear of frequent oral 
repetition. The volume contains one hundred and six short se- 
lections, making a total body of less than eighteen hundred 
lines. Forty-nine poets are represented. The length of each 
selection, averaging about sixteen lines, is fixed with a view, 
not only to avoid taxing the mind, but also to persuade chil- 
dren to delight in repetition and teachers to encourage it. Be- 
cause of this necessary brevity, and for the sake of clearness 
and unity, an occasional change of the original text has been 
made. The indentation of lines is generally determined by 
the rhymes and enables the eye to help the ear to understand. 
For each selection the centre of interest is pointed out by a 
title, the year of the writer's birth and of his death are given, 
and also his own title for the whole poem from which a part 
has been taken ; while, just as on the musical page, the name 
of the prevailing foot is indicated and the number of beats in 
the line. Except for the last six poems which concern the sub- 



xx THE TRAINING OF THE EAR 

ject-matter of poetry, dividing it into six parts under the 
general title, Poems of Reverence, the whole collection falls 
into four sections according to the kind of foot which pre- 
vails in each ; and within the section the order follows the 
number of feet in the line. Within this sequence, the arrange- 
ment is chronological only when the metrical scheme of the 
selections is identical as to rhyme and accent ; otherwise, be- 
ginning with verses without rhymes, the order is determined 
by the number of lines or rhymes in the stanza. In the group 
of sonnets technical considerations of structure and rhyme 
have dictated the order. 

There is an analytical index of metres, showing diversity in 
rhyming schemes and grouping together similar kinds of verse. 
For the teacher this will be of special use, the more consciously 
to find for the learner's ear variety and contrast in the sequence 
of choices for committing to memory. For the teacher and 
pupil alike the authors' index and an index of first lines will 
be found useful. 

Let it not be thought that the greatest poetry is unfit for 
common children, or that the worth of learning by heart is 
limited to the young. Poetry commands a response from ears 
of every age and station. The profounder its passion, and the 
richer its rhythm, the deeper is the awakening of the human 
soul. In the faith that deep can thus call unto deep, this book 
is gathered. It is made especially to help children and their 
teachers to reach a larger reverence for the great poets, and 
through melodies that are immortal, to acquire beauty in their 
speech, and in their lives a lasting joy. 

L. K. M. 

Boxford, April 21, 1910. 



PART I 

IAMBIC MOVEMENT 



[Iambic one, anapaestic one] 



ROBERT HERRICK 

1591-1674 

THE BRAVE HEART 

As one 

Undone 
By my losses, 

Comply 

Will I 
With my crosses. 

Yet still 

I will 
Not be grieving; 

Since thence 

And hence 
Comes relieving. 

But this 

Sweet is 
In our mourning; 

Times bad 

And sad 
Are a turning; 

And he 

Whom we 
See dejected, 

Next day 

We may 
See erected. 

From Anacreontike 



MELODIES 



II 

ALFRED TENNYSON 

1809-1892 

EARLY SPRING 

Once more the Heavenly Power 
Makes all things new, 

And domes the red-plow'd hills 
With loving blue; 

The blackbirds have their wills, 
The throstles too. 

Opens a door in heaven; 
From skies of glass 
A Jacob's ladder falls 
On greening grass, 
And o'er the mountain-walls 
Young angels pass. 

Before them fleets the shower, 

And burst the buds, 
And shine the level lands, 

And flash the floods ; 
The stars are from their hands 

Flung thro' the woods, 



[Iambics two, three] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 

The woods with living airs 

How softly fann'd, 
Light airs from where the deep, 

All down the sand, 
Is breathing in his sleep, 

Heard by the land. 

O, follow, leaping blood, 

The season's lure! 
O heart, look down and up 

Serene, secure, 
Warm as the crocus cup, 

Like snowdrops, pure! 

For now the Heavenly Power 
Makes all things new, 
And thaws the cold, and fills 

The flower with dew; 
The blackbirds have their wills, 
The poets too. 

From Early Spring 



MELODIES 



III 

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 

1770-1850 

SPRING SIGHTS AND SOUNDS 

The cock is crowing, 

The stream is flowing, 

The small birds twitter, 

The lake doth glitter, 
The green field sleeps in the sun; 

The oldest and youngest 

Are at work with the strongest; 

The cattle are grazing, 

Their heads never raising; 
There are forty feeding like one! 

From Written in March, while Resting on the 
Bridge at tJie Foot of Brothers Water 

[Mixed iambics anapsestics two, three] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 



IV 

HENRY VAUGHAN 

1622-1695 

GUIDING SAINTS 

Stars are of mighty use: the night 

Is dark, and long; 
The road foul ; and where one goes right, 
Six may go wrong. 
One twinkling ray, 

Shot o'er some cloud, 
May clear much way, 
And guide a crowd. 

God's saints are shining lights: who stays 

Here long must pass 
O'er dark hills, swift streams, and steep ways 
As smooth as glass; 
But these all night, 

Like candles, shed 
Their beams, and light 
Us into bed. 



MELODIES 

They are, indeed, our pillar-fires, 

Seen as we go; 
They are that City's shining spires 
We travel to. 
A swordlike gleam 

Kept man from sin, 
First out; this beam 
Will guide him in. 

From Content 
[Iambics two, four] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 



ALEXANDER POPE 

1688-1744 

SOLITUDE 

Happy the man whose wish and care 

A few paternal acres bound, 
Content to breathe his native air 

In his own ground. 

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread, 
Whose flocks supply him with attire; 

Whose trees in summer yield him shade, 
In winter fire. 

Blest, who can unconcern 'dly find 

Hours, days, and years, slide soft away 
In health of body, peace of mind, 

Quiet by day, 

Sound sleep by night; study and ease, 
Together mixt, sweet recreation, 

And innocence, which most does please 
With meditation. 



10 MELODIES 

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown; 

Thus unlamented let me die; 
Steal from the world, and not a stone 

Tell where I lie. 

From Ode on Solitude 
[Iambics two, four] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 11 



VI 
ROBERT BURNS 

1759-1796 

TO A MOUSE 

Wee, sleekit, 1 cow'rin', tim'rous beastie, 
O, what a panic 's in thy breastie! 
Thou need na start awa sae hasty 

Wi' bickering 2 brattle ! 3 
I wad be laith 4 to rin an' chase thee, 

Wi' murd'ring pattle! 5 

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste, 
An' weary winter comin' fast, 
An' cozie here, beneath the blast, 

Thou thought to dwell, 
Till, crash! the cruel coulter past 

Out thro' thy cell. 

But Mousie, thou art no thy 6 lane, 6 
In proving foresight may be vain: 
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men 

Gang oft agley, 7 
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, 

For promised joy! 



12 MELODIES 

Still thou art blest, compared wi' me! 
The present only toucheth thee: 
But och ! I backward cast my e'e, 8 

On prospects drear! 
An' forward, tho' I canna see, 

I guess an' fear! 

From To a Mouse on Turning her up in her 
Nest, with the Plow, November, 1785 
[Iambics two, four] 

1 Sleek. 2 Hurrying. 3 Scamper. 4 Loath. 

5 A kind of spade for scraping the plowshare. 

6 Alone. 7 Askew. 8 Eye. 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 13 



VII 

ALFRED TENNYSON 

1809-1892 

CROSSING THE BAR 

Sunset and evening star, 

And one clear call for me! 
And may there be no moaning of the bar, 

When I put out to sea, 

But such a tide as moving seems asleep, 
Too full for sound and foam, 

When that which drew from out the boundless deep 
Turns again home. 

Twilight and evening bell, 

And after that the dark! 
And may there be no sadness of farewell, 

When I embark; 

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place 

The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face 

When I have crost the bar. 

From Crossing the Bar 
[Iambics two, three, five] 



14 MELODIES 



VIII 

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 

1770-1850 

THE RAINBOW 

My heart leaps up when I behold 
A rainbow in the sky: 
So was it when my life began; 
So is it now I am a man; 
So be it when I shall grow old, 
Or let me die ! 
The Child is father of the Man ; 
And I could wish my days to be 
Bound each to each by natural piety. 

" My heart leaps up when I behold " 
[Iambics two, three, four, five] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 15 



IX 



ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD 

1743-1825 

COMRADES 

Life ! I know not what thou art, 
But know that thou and I must part; 
And when, or how, or where we met, 
I own to me 's a secret yet. 

Life! we have been long together 
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather; 
'T is hard to part when friends are dear ; 
Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear; — 

Then steal away, give little warning, 
Choose thine own time; 
Say not Good-night, but in some brighter clime 

Bid me Good-morning! 

From Life 
[Iambics two, four, five] 



16 MELODIES 



X 



HENRY VAUGHAN 

1622-1695 

THE BIRD 

Hither thou com'st. The busy wind all night 

Blew through thy lodging, where thy own warm wing 
Thy pillow was. Many a sullen storm, 
For which coarse man seems much the fitter born, 
Rain'd on thy bed, 
And harmless head. 

From The Bird 
[Iambics two, five] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 17 



XI 
EDMUND SPENSER 

1552-1599 

MAN GOES, FLOWERS RETURN 

Whence is it, that the floweret of the field doth fade, 

And lieth buried long in Winter's bale; 
Yet, soon as Spring his mantle hath display'd, 
It flowereth fresh, as it should never fail ? 
But thing on earth that is of most avail, 

As virtues branch and beauties bud, 
Reliven not for any good. 
O heavy hearse! 
The branch once dead, the bud eke needs must quail ; 
O careful verse! 

From The Shepheardes Calender (November) 
[Iambics two, four, five, six] 



18 MELODIES 



XII 
GEORGE HERBERT 

1593-1633 

THE ELIXIR 

Teach me, my God and King, 
In all things thee to see; 

And what I do in any thing, 
To do it as for thee. 

Not rudely, as a beast, 

To run into an action; 

But still to make thee prepossesst, 
And give it his perfection. 

A man that looks on glass 

On it may stay his eye, 

Or if he pleaseth, through it pass, 
And then the heav'n espy. 

All may of thee partake: 

Nothing can be so mean, 

Which with his tincture (for thy sake) 
Will not grow bright and clean. 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 19 

A servant with this clause 

Makes drudgery divine: 
Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws, 

Makes that and th' action fine. 

This is the famous stone 

That turneth all to gold : 
For that which God doth touch and own 

Cannot for less be told. 

The Elixir 
[Iambics three, four] 



20 MELODIES 



XIII 

ALFRED TENNYSON 

1809-1892 

THE BROOK 

I come from haunts of coot and hern, 

I make a sudden sally, 
And sparkle out among the fern, 

To bicker down a valley. 

I wind about, and in and out, 
With here a blossom sailing, 

And here and there a lusty trout, 
And here and there a grayling, 

And here and there a foamy flake 

Upon me, as I travel, 
With many a silvery water-break 

Above the golden gravel, 

And draw them all along, and flow 
To join the brimming river, 

For men may come and men may go, 
But I go on forever. 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 21 

I steal by lawns and grassy plots, 

I slide by hazel covers; 
I move the sweet forget-me-nots 

That grow for happy lovers. 

I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance, 
Among my skimming swallows; 

I make the netted sunbeam dance 
Against my sandy shallows. 

I murmur under moon and stars 

In brambly wildernesses; 
I linger by my shingly bars; 

I loiter round my cresses; 

And out again I curve and flow 

To join the brimming river, 
For men may come and men may go, 

But I go on forever. 

From The Brook 
[Iambics three, four] 



22 MELODIES 



XIV 
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 

1772-1834 

THE CHILDREN OF GOD 

O Wedding-Guest! this soul hath been 

Alone on a wide wide sea: 
So lonely 'twas, that God himself 

Scarce seemed there to be. 

O sweeter than the marriage-feast, 

'T is sweeter far to me, 
To walk together to the kirk 

With a goodly company ! — 

To walk together to the kirk, 
And all together pray, 
While each to his great Father bends, 
Old men, and babes, and loving friends, 
And youths and maidens gay! 

Farewell, farewell! but this I tell - 
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest! 

He prayeth well, who loveth well 
Both man and bird and beast. 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 23 

He prayeth best, who loveth best 

All things both great and small ; 
For the dear God who loveth us, 

He made and loveth all. 

From The Rime of the Ancient Mariner 
[Iambics three, four] 



24 MELODIES 

XV 
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 

1772-1834 

THE ANGEL CHOIR 

Around, around, flew each sweet sound, 

Then darted to the Sun; 
Slowly the sounds came back again, 

Now mixed, now one by one. 

Sometimes a-dropping from the sky 

I heard the sky-lark sing; 
Sometimes all little birds that are, 
How they seem'd to fill the sea and air 

With their sweet jargoning! 

And now 't was like all instruments, 

Now like a lonely flute; 
And now it is an angel's song, 

That makes the heavens be mute. 

It ceased; yet still the sails made on 

A pleasant noise till noon, 
A noise like of a hidden brook 

In the leafy month of June, 
That to the sleeping woods all night 

Singeth a quiet tune. 

From The Rime of the Ancient Mariner 
[Iambics three, four] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 25 

XVI 

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 

1770-1850 
THE EDUCATION OF NATURE 

Three years she grew in sun and shower, 
Then Nature said, "A lovelier flower 

On earth was never sown; 
This Child I to myself will take; 
She shall be mine, and I will make 

A Lady of my own. 

"The floating clouds their state shall lend 
To her; for her the willow bend; 

Nor shall she fail to see 
Even in the motions of the Storm 
Grace that shall mould the Maiden's form 

By silent sympathy. 

"The stars of midnight shall be dear 
To her; and she shall lean her ear 

In many a secret place 
Where rivulets dance their wayward round, 
And beauty born of murmuring sound 

Shall pass into her face." 

From " Three years she grew in sun and shower " 
[Iambics three, four] 



26 MELODIES 



XVII 
THOMAS HOOD 

1799-1845 

PAST AND PRESENT 

I remember, I remember 

The Rouse where I was born, 
The little window where the sun 

Came peeping in at morn; 
He never came a wink too soon 

Nor brought too long a day; 
But now, I often wish the night 

Had borne my breath away. 

I remember, I remember 

Where I was used to swing, 
And thought the air must rush as fresh 

To swallows on the wing; 
My spirit flew in feathers then 

That is so heavy now, 
And summer pools could hardly cool 

The fever on my brow. 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 27 

I remember, I remember 

The fir trees dark and high; 
I used to think their slender tops 

Were close against the sky; 
It was a childish ignorance, 

But now 't is little joy 
To know I'm farther off from Heaven 

Than when I was a boy. 

From " / remember, I remember " 
[Iambics three, four; refrain trochaics four] 



28 MELODIES 



XVIII 

BEN JONSON 

1573-1637 

YOUTHFUL AGE 

It is not growing like a tree 
In bulk, doth make Man better be; 
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, 
To fall a log at last dry, bald, and sere: 
A lily of a day 
Is fairer far in May, 
Although it fall and die that night — 
It was the plant and flower of Light. 
In small proportions we just beauties see; 
And in short measures life may perfect be. 

From To the Immortal Memory and Friendship of that Noble 
Pair, Sir Lucius Cary and Sir H. Morison 
[Iambics three, four, five] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 



XIX 

MATTHEW ARNOLD 

1822-1888 

THE OCEAN AND ITS MELODY 

The sea is calm to-night. 

The tide is full ; the moon lies fair 
Upon the straits ; — on the French coast the light 
Gleams, and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, 
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay, 
Only, from the long line of spray 
Where the sea meets the moon-blanch'd land, 
Listen ! you hear the grating roar 
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, 
At their return, up the high strand, 

Begin, and cease, and then again begin, 
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring 
The eternal note of sadness in. 

From Dover Beach 

[Mixed chiefly iambics three, four, five, six] 



30 MELODIES 



XX 
WILLIAM COLLINS 

1721-1759 

TO EVENING 

Now air is hush'd, save where the weak-eyed bat 
With short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing; 

Or where the beetle winds 

His small but sullen horn, 

As oft he rises midst the twilight path, 
Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum : 
Now teach me, maid composed, 
To breathe some soften 'd strain. 

While Spring shall pour his showers, as oft he wont, 
And bathe thy breathing tresses, meekest eve! 

While Summer loves to sport 

Beneath thy lingering light; 

While sallow Autumn fills thy lap with leaves; 
Or Winter, yelling through the troublous air, 

Affrights thy shrinking train 

And rudely rends thy robes; 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 31 

So long, regardful of thy quiet rule, 

Shall Fancy, Friendship, Science, smiling Peace, 

Thy gentlest influence own, 

And love thy favourite name ! 

From To Evening 
[Iambics three, five] 



32 MELODIES 



XXI 
JOHN MILTON 

1608-1674 

THE WANDERING MOON 

I walk unseen 
On the dry smooth-shaven green, 
To behold the wandering Moon, 
Riding near her highest noon, 
Like one that had been led astray 
Through the heaven's wide pathless way, 
And oft, as if her head she bow'd, 
Stooping through a fleecy cloud. 

From II Penseroso 



[Iambics four] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 33 



XXII v 

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER 

1807-1892 

THE FIRESIDE 

Shut in from all the world without, 
We sat the clean-wing'd hearth about, 
Content to let the north-wind roar 
In baffled rage at pane and door, 
While the red logs before us beat 
The frost-line back with tropic heat; 
And ever, when a louder blast 
Shook beam and rafter as it pass'd, 
The merrier up its roaring draught 
The great throat of the chimney laugh'd; 
What matter how the night behaved ? 
What matter how the north-wind raved ? 
Blow high, blow low, not all its snow 
Could quench our hearth-fire's ruddy glow. 

From Snow-Bound 
[Iambics four] 



34 MELODIES 



XXIII 

DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI 

1828-1882 

BROODING GRIEF 

The wind flapp'd loose, the wind was still, 
Shaken out dead from tree and hill: 
I had walk'd on at the wind's will, — 
I sat now, for the wind was still. 

Between my knees my forehead was, — 
My lips, drawn in, said not Alas ! 
My hair was over in the grass, 
My naked ears heard the day pass. 

My eyes, wide open, had the run 

Of some ten weeds to fix upon; 

Among those few, out of the sun, 

The woodspurge flower'd, three cups in one. 

From perfect grief there need not be 
Wisdom or even memory: 
One thing then learnt remains to me, — 
The woodspurge has a cup of three. 

The Woodspurge 
[Iambics four] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 35 



XXIV 
ALFRED TENNYSON 

1809-1892 

THE COMING OF THE WIND 

To-night the winds begin to rise 

And roar from yonder dropping day; 
The last red leaf is whirl'd away, 

The rooks are blown about the skies; 

The forest crack 'd, the waters curl'd, 
The cattle huddled on the lea; 
And wildly dash'd on tower and tree 

The sunbeam strikes along the world. 

We paused : the winds were in the beech ; 

We heard them sweep the winter land; 

And in a circle hand-in-hand 
Sat silent, looking each at each. 

From In Memoriam 
[Iambics four] 



36 MELODIES 



XXV 
WALTER SCOTT 

1771-1832 

THE BALLAD OF ROSABELLE 

Moor, moor the barge, ye gallant crew ! 

And, gentle lady, deign to stay! 
Rest thee in Castle Ravensheuch, 

Nor tempt the stormy firth to-day. 

Last night the gifted Seer did view 

A wet shroud swath'd round lady gay; 

Then stay thee, Fair, in Ravensheuch; 
Why cross the gloomy firth to-day? 

1 'T is not because Lord Lindesay's heir 
To-night at Roslin leads the ball, 
But that my lady-mother there 
Sits lonely in her castle-hall. 

1 'T is not because the ring they ride, 

And Lindesay at the ring rides well, 
But that my sire the cup will chide 
If 't is not fill'd by Rosabelle." 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 37 

Light glared on Roslin's castled rock, 
It ruddied all the copse-wood glen; 

'T was seen from Dryden's groves of oak, 
And seen from cavern 'd Hawthornden. 

Blazed battlement and pinnet high, 

Blazed every rose-carved buttress fair — 

So still they blaze, when fate is nigh 
The lordly line of high Saint Clair. 

There are twenty of Roslin's barons bold — 
Lie buried within that proud chapelle; 

Each one the holy vault doth hold — 
But the sea holds lovely Rosabelle. 

And each Saint Clair was buried there, 

With candle, with book, and with knell ; 

But the sea-caves rung, and the wild winds sung 
The dirge of lovely Rosabelle. 

From The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto VI 
[Iambics four] 



38 MELODIES 



XXVI 
HENRY WOTTON 

1568-1639 

COMPARISONS 

. You meaner beauties of the night, 
That poorly satisfy our eyes 
More by your number than your light, 
You common people of the skies, 
What are you, when the moon shall rise ? 

You curious chanters of the wood 

That warble forth dame Nature's lays, 

Thinking your passions understood 

By your weak accents ; what 's your praise 
When Philomel her voice doth raise? 

You violets that first appear, 

By your pure purple mantles known 

Like the proud virgins of the year, 
As if the spring were all your own, — 
What are you, when the Rose is blown ? 

From On his Mistris, tlie Queen of Bohemia 
[Iambics four] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 39 

XXVII 
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 

1770-1850 

THE HARD MAN 

He roved among the vales and streams, 
In the green wood and hollow dell; 
They were his dwellings night and day, — 
But Nature ne'er could find the way 
Into the heart of Peter Bell. 

In vain, through every changeful year, 
Did Nature lead him as before; 
A primrose by a river's brim 
A yellow primrose was to him, 
And it was nothing more. 

At noon, when, by the forest's edge 
He lay beneath the branches high, 

The soft blue sky did never melt 

Into his heart; he never felt 
The witchery of the soft blue sky! 

A savage wildness round him hung 

As of a dweller out of doors; 
In his whole figure and his mien 
A savage character was seen 

Of mountains and of dreary moors. 



40 MELODIES 

There was a hardness in his cheek, 
There was a hardness in his eye, 
As if the man had fix'd his face 
In many a solitary place, 
Against the wind and open sky! 

From Peter Bell: A Tale, Part I 
[Iambics four] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 41 



[Chiefly iambics four] 



XXVIII 
ROBERT BROWNING 

1812-1889 

BEACHING THE BOAT 

The gray sea and the long black land; 
And the yellow half -moon large and low; 
And the startled little waves that leap 
In fiery ringlets from their sleep, 
As I gain the cove with pushing prow, 
And quench its speed i' the slushy sand. 

From Meeting at Night 



42 MELODIES 



XXIX 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON 

1803-1882 

EACH AND ALL 

Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloak'd clown 

Of thee from the hill-top looking down; 

The heifer that lows in the upland farm, 

Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm; 

The sexton, tolling his bell at noon, 

Deems not that great Napoleon 

Stops his horse, and lists with delight, 

Whilst his files sweep round yon Alpine height; 

Nor knowest thou what argument 

Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent. 

All are needed by each one; 

Nothing is fair or good alone. 

I thought the sparrow's note from heaven, 
Singing at dawn on the alder bough; 

I brought him home, in his nest, at even; 
He sings the song, but it cheers not now, 

For I did not bring home the river and sky ; — 

He sang to my ear, — they sang to my eye. 

From Each and All 

[Mixed iambics anapaestics four] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 43 



XXX 



COVENTRY PATMORE 

1823-1896 

THE REVELATION 

An idle poet, here and there, 

Looks round him; but, for all the rest, 
The world, unfathomably fair, 

Is duller than a witling's jest. 
Love wakes men, once a lifetime each; 

They lift their heavy lids, and look; 
And, lo, what one sweet page can teach, 

They read with joy, then shut the book. 
And some give thanks, and some blaspheme 

And most forget; but, either way, 
That and the Child's unheeded dream 

Is all the light of all their day. 

From The Angel in the House, Book 7, Canto VIII 
[Iambics four] 



44 MELODIES 



XXXI 
ROBERT HERRICK 

1591-1674 

CORINNA GOES A-MAYING 

Get up, get up for shame! The blooming morn 
Upon her wings presents the god unshorn. 
See how Aurora throws her fair 
Fresh-quilted colors through the air: 
Get up, sweet Slug-a-bed, and see 
The dew bespangling herb and tree. 
Each flower has wept, and bow'd toward the east, 
Above an hour since; yet you not drest, 
Nay ! not so much as out of bed ? 
When all the birds have matins said, 
And sung their thankful hymns : 't is sin, 
Nay, profanation, to keep in, — 
Whenas a thousand virgins on this day, 
Spring, sooner than the lark, to fetch-in May. 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 45 

Rise; and put on your foliage, and be seen 

To come forth, like the Spring-time, fresh and green, 

And sweet as Flora. Take no care 

For jewels for your gown, or hair : 

Fear not; the leaves will strew 

Gems in abundance upon you: 
Besides, the childhood of the day has kept, 
Against you come, some orient pearls unwept: 

Come, and receive them while the light 

Hangs on the dew-locks of the night: 

And Titan on the eastern hill 

Retires himself, or else stands still 
Till you come forth. Wash, dress, be brief in praying: 
Come, my Corinna! come, let's go a-Maying. 

From Corinna ' s going a-Maying. 
[Iambics four, five] 



46 MELODIES 



XXXII 
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 

1792-1822 

THE PALE MOON 

Art thou pale for weariness 
Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth, 

Wandering companionless 
Among the stars that have a different birth, — 
And ever changing, like a joyless eye 
That finds no object worth its constancy ? 

To the Moon 
[Iambics four, five] 



OF ENGLISH VERS& 47 



XXXIII 

ALFRED TENNYSON 

1809-1892 
THE BUGLE SONG 

The splendor falls on castle walls 

And snowy summits old in story; 
The long light shakes across the lakes, 
And the wild cataract leaps in glory. 
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, 
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. 

O, hark, O, hear! how thin and clear, 

And thinner, clearer, farther going! 
O, sweet and far from cliff and scar 

The horns of Elfland faintly blowing! 
Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying, 
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. 

O love, they die in yon rich sky, 

They faint on hill or field or river; 
Our echoes roll from soul to soul, 
And grow forever and forever. 
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, 
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying. 

From The Princess, Part III 
[Chiefly iambics four, five, six] 



48 MELODIES 



XXXIV 
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 

1564-1616 

QUEEN MAB 

O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you. 

She is the fairies' midwife ; and she comes 

In shape no bigger than an agate-stone 

On the fore-finger of an alderman, 

Drawn with a team of little atomies 

Over men's noses as they lie asleep; 

Her wagon-spokes made of long spinners' legs; 

The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers; 

The traces, of the smallest spider's web; 

The collars, of the moonshine's watery beams; 

Her whip, of cricket's bone; the lash, of film; 

Her wagoner, a small grey-coated gnat, 

Not half so big as a round little worm 

Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid. 

Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut 

Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub, 

Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers, 

And in this state she gallops night by night. 

From Romeo and Juliet, I, 4 
[Iambics five] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 49 

XXXV 
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 

1564-1616 

ADDRESS TO HIS SOLDIERS 

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; 

Or close the wall up with our English dead ! 

In peace there 's nothing so becomes a man 

As modest stillness and humility: 

But when the blast of war blows in our ears, 

Then imitate the action of the tiger; 

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, 

Disguise fair nature with hard-favor'd rage; 

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect; 

Let it pry through the portage of the head 

Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it 

As fearfully as doth a galled rock 

O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, 

Swill 'd with the wild and wasteful ocean. 

Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide; 

Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit 

To his full height ! On, on, you noblest English ! 

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, 

Straining upon the start. The game 's afoot! 

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge 

Cry, — " God for Harry ! England and Saint George ! " 

From King Henry V, III, 1 
[Iambics five] 



50 MELODIES 



XXXVI 
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 

1564-1616 

LIFE AS A PLAY 

All the world 's a stage, 
And all the men and women merely players. 
They have their exits and their entrances, 
And one man in his time plays many parts, 
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, 
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. 
Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel 
And shining morning face, creeping like snail 
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, 
Sighing like furnace, with a woful ballad 
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier, 
Jealous in honor, sudden, and quick in quarrel, 
Seeking the bubble reputation 

Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice, 
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, 
Full of wise saws and modern instances; 
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts 
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon, 
With spectacles on nose; his manly voice, 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 51 

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes 
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, 
That ends this strange eventful history, 
Is second childishness and mere oblivion, 
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. 

From As You Like It, II, 7 
[Iambics five] 



52 MELODIES 



XXXVII 
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 

1564-1616 

AMBITION 

I did not think to shed a tear 
In all my miseries; but thou hast forced me, 
Out of thy honest truth, to play the woman. 
Let 's dry our eyes ; and thus far hear me, Cromwell ; 
And, when I am forgotten, as I shall be, 
And sleep in dull cold marble, where no mention 
Of me more must be heard of, say, I taught thee; 
Say, Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory, 
And sounded all the depths and shoals of honor, 
Found thee a way, out of his wreck, to rise in; 
A sure and safe one, though thy master miss'd it. 
Mark but my fall, and that that ruin'd me. 
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition! 
By that sin fell the angels; how can man, then, 
The image of his Maker, hope to win by it ? 
Love thyself last. Cherish those hearts that hate thee; 
Corruption wins not more than honesty. 
Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, 
To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not. 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 53 

Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, 

Thy God's, and truth's; then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell, 

Thou fall'st a blessed martyr! . . . 

Had I but served my God with half the zeal 

I served my king, He would not in mine age 

Have left me naked to mine enemies. 

From King Henry VIII, III, 2 
[Iambics five] 



54 MELODIES 



XXXVIII 

JOHN MILTON 

1608-1674 

MORNING 

Sweet is the breath of Morn, her rising sweet, 
With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the Sun, 
When first on this delightful land he spreads 
His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flower, 
Glistering with dew; fragrant the fertile Earth 
After soft showers; and sweet the coming-on 
Of grateful Evening mild; then silent Night, 
With this her solemn bird, and this fair Moon, 
And these the gems of Heaven, her starry train : 
But neither breath of Morn, when she ascends 
With charm of earliest birds; nor rising Sun 
On this delightful land; nor herb, fruit, flower, 
Glistering with dew; nor fragrance after showers; 
Nor grateful Evening mild; nor silent Night, 
With this her solemn bird ; nor walk by moon, 
Or glittering star-light, without thee is sweet. 

From Paradise Lost, Book IV 
[Iambics five] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 55 



XXXIX 



WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 

1770-1850 

SKATING 

And in the frosty season, when the sun 

Was set, and visible for many a mile 

The cottage windows blazed through twilight gloom, 

I heeded not their summons: happy time 

It was indeed for all of us — for me 

It was a time of rapture ! Clear and loud 

The village clock tolPd six, — I wheel'd about, 

Proud and exulting like an untired horse 

That cares not for his home. All shod with steel, 

We hiss'd along the polish'd ice in games 

Confederate, imitative of the chase. 

So through the darkness and the cold we flew, 

And not a voice was idle; with the din 

Smitten, the precipices rang aloud; 

The leafless trees and every icy crag 

Tinkled like iron ; while far distant hills 

Into the tumult sent an alien sound 

Of melancholy not unnoticed, while the stars 

Eastward were sparkling clear, and in the west 

The orange sky of evening died away. 

From The Prelude, Book I 
[Iambics five and six] 



56 MELODIES 



XL 
JOHN KEATS 

1795-1821 

SILENT NIGHT 

Sleep on! 
As when, upon a tranced summer-night, 
Tall oaks, branch-charmed by the earnest stars, 
Dream, and so dream all night without a stir, 
Save from one gradual solitary gust 
Which comes upon the silence, and dies off, 
As if the ebbing air had but one wave. 

From Hyperion, Book I 
[Iambics five] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 57 

XLI 

ALFRED TENNYSON 

1809-1892 

ULYSSES 

I cannot rest from travel; 
Much have I seen and known, — cities of men 
And manners, climates, councils, governments, 
Myself not least, but honor 'd of them all, — 
And drunk delight of battle with my peers, 
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy. 
I am a part of all that I have met; 
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' 
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades 
For ever and for ever when I move. 
How dull it is to pause, to make an end, 
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use! 
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail; 
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks; 
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep 
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends, 
'T is not too late to seek a newer world. 
Push off, and sitting well in order smite 
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds 
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths 
Of all the western stars, until I die. 

From Ulysses 
[Iambics five] 



58 MELODIES 



XLII 
ROBERT BROWNING 

1812-1889 

THE BEAUTY OF REALITY 

This world 's no blot for us 
Nor blank; it means intensely, and means good: 
To find its meaning is my meat and drink. 

— The beauty and the wonder and the power, 

The shapes of things, their colors, lights and shades, 
Changes, surprises, — and God made it all ! 

— For what ? Do you feel thankful, ay, or no, 
For this fair town's face, yonder river's line, 
The mountain round it and the sky above, 
Much more the figures of man, woman, child, 
These are the frame to ? What 's it all about ? 
To be pass'd over, despised ? or dwelt upon, 
Wonder'd at ? oh, this last of course ! — you say. 
But why not do as well as say, — paint these 
Just as they are, careless what comes of it? 
God's works — paint any one, and count it crime 
To let a truth slip. Don't object, "His works 
Are here already; nature is complete." 

For, don't you mark ? we 're made so that we love 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 59 

First when we see them painted, things we have pass'd 
Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see; 
And so they are better, painted — better to us, 
Which is the same thing. Art was given for that; 
God uses us to help each other so, 
Lending our minds out. 

From Fra Lippo Lippi 

[Iambics five] 



60 MELODIES 

XLIII 
WILLIAM MORRIS 

1834-1896 
SHIPS AT NIGHT 

And such a fate I could not choose but fear 

For us sometimes; and sometimes when at night 

Beneath the moon I watch'd the foam fly white 

From off our bows, and thought how weak and small 

Show'd the Rose-Garland's mast that look'd so tall 

Beside the quays of Breman; when I saw 

With measured steps the watch on toward me draw, 

And in the moon the helmsman's peering face, 

And 'twixt the cordage strain 'd across my place 

Beheld the white sail of the Fighting Man 

Lead down the pathway of the moonlight wan — 

Then when the ocean seem'd so measureless 

The very sky itself might well be less, 

When midst the changeless piping of the wind, 

The intertwined slow waves press 'd on behind 

Roll'd o'er our wake and made it nought again, 

Then would it seem an ill thing and a vain 

To leave the hopeful world that we had known, 

When all was o'er, hopeless to die alone 

Within this changeless world of waters grey. 

From The Earthly Paradise (Prologue of The Wanderers) 

[Iambics five] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 61 



XLIV 

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE 

1564-1593 

THE SWIMMER 

Leander, being up, began to swim, 
And looking back, saw Neptune follow him; 
"O, let me visit Hero ere I die!" 
The god put Helle's bracelet on his arm, 
And swore the sea should never do him harm. 
He watch'd his arms, and, as they open'd wide 
At every stroke, betwixt them would he slide, 
And steal a kiss, and then run out and dance, 
And, as he turn'd, cast many a gleeful glance, 
And throw him gaudy toys to please his eye, 
And dive into the water, and there pry 
Upon his breast, his thighs, and every limb, 
And up again, and close beside him swim, 
And talk of love. 

From Hero and Leander, Second Sestiad 
[Iambics five] 



62 MELODIES 



XLV 
ALEXANDER POPE 

1688-1744 

ON WRITING VERSE 

'T is not enough no harshness gives offence, 

The sound must seem an echo to the sense. 

Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows, 

And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows; 

But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, 

The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar : 

When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, 

The line too labors, and the words move slow. 

Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain, 

Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main. 

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, 

As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance. 

True wit is nature to advantage dress'd; 

What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd. 

From An Essay on Criticism 
[Iambics five and six] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 



XLVI 
OLIVER GOLDSMITH 

1728-1774 

THE VILLAGE PREACHER 

A man he was to all the country dear, 

And passing rich with forty pounds a year; 

Remote from towns he ran his godly race, 

Nor e'er had changed, nor wish'd to change, his place; 

Unpracticed he to fawn, or seek for power, 

By doctrines fashion'd to the varying hour; 

Far other aims his heart had learn'd to prize, 

More skill'd to raise the wretched than to rise. 

His house was known to all the vagrant train; 

He chid their wanderings, but relieved their pain : 

Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride, 

And e'en his failings lean'd to Virtue's side; 

But in his duty prompt at every call, 

He watch'd and wept, he pray'd and felt for all; 

And, as a bird each fond endearment tries 

To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies, 

He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, 

Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way. 



64 MELODIES 

His ready smile a parent's warmth express'd ; 

Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distress'd: 

To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given, 

But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven. 

As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, 

Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm, 

Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 

Eternal sunshine settles on its head. 

From The Deserted Village 
[Iambics five] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 65 



XLVII 

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 

1792-1822 

WASTE PLACES BY THE SEA 

I rode one evening with Count Maddalo 

Upon the bank of land which breaks the flow 

Of Adria towards Venice : a bare strand 

Of hillocks, heap'd from ever-shifting sand, 

Matted with thistles and amphibious weeds, 

Such as from earth's embrace the salt ooze breeds, 

Is this; an uninhabited sea-side, 

Which the lone fisher, when his nets are dried, 

Abandons; and no other object breaks 

The waste, but one dwarf tree and some few stakes 

Broken and unrepair 'd, and the tide makes 

A narrow space of level sand thereon, 

Where 't was our wont to ride while day went down. 

This ride was my delight. I love all waste 

And solitary places; where we taste 

The pleasure of believing what we see 

Is boundless, as we wish our souls to be : 

And such was this wide ocean, and this shore 

More barren than its billows; and yet more 



66 MELODIES 

Than all, with a remember'd friend I love 
To ride as then I rode ; — for the winds drove 
The living spray along the sunny air 
Into our faces; the blue heavens were bare, 
Stripp'd to their depths by the awakening north; 
And from the waves, sound like delight broke forth 
Harmonizing with solitude, and sent 
Into our hearts aerial merriment. 

From Julian and Maddalo 
[Iambics five] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 67 



XLVIII 

JOHN KEATS 

1795-1821 

THE OFFICE OF BEAUTY 

A thing of beauty is a joy forever: 

Its loveliness increases; it will never 

Pass into nothingness; but still will keep 

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep 

Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing. 

Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing 

A flowery band to bind us to the earth, 

Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth 

Of noble natures, of the gloomy days, 

Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darken'd ways 

Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all, 

Some shape of beauty moves away the pall 

From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon, 

Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon 

For simple sheep; and such are daffodils 

With the green world they live in ; and clear rills 

That for themselves a cooling covert make 

'Gainst the hot season; the mid forest brake, 



68 MELODIES 

Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms: 
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms 
We have imagined for the mighty dead; 
All lovely tales that we have heard or read : 
An endless fountain of immortal drink, 
Pouring into us from the heaven's brink. 

From Endymion, Book I 
[Iambics five] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 69 



XLIX 

ALFRED TENNYSON 

1809-1892 

SONG OF ALLEGIANCE 

Blow trumpet, for the world is white with May! 
Blow trumpet, the long night hath roll'd away ! 
Blow thro' the living world — "Let the King reign!" 

Shall Rome or Heathen rule in Arthur's realm ? 
Flash brand and lance, fall battle-axe upon helm, 
Fall battle-axe, and flash brand ! Let the King reign ! 

Strike for the King and live! his knights have heard 
That God hath told the King a secret word. 
Fall battle-axe, and flash brand ! Let the King reign ! 

Blow trumpet ! he will lift us from the dust. 
Blow trumpet! live the strength, and die the lust! 
Clang battle-axe, and clash brand ! Let the King reign ! 

Strike for the King and die ! and if thou diest, 
The King is king, and ever wills the highest. 
Clang battle-axe, and clash brand ! Let the King reign ! 

From Idylls of the King {The Coming of Arthur) 
[Chiefly iambics five] 



70 MELODIES 



PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 

1792-1822 

THE WEST WIND 

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, 

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead 
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, 

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, 
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou, 

Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed 

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, 

Each like a corpse within its grave, until 
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow 

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill 
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air) 
With living hues and odors plain and hill : 

Wild Spirit, which art moving every where; 
Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear! 

From Ode to the West Wind 
[Iambics five] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 71 



LI 
EDWARD FITZGERALD 

1809-1883 

TALKS IN THE POTTER'S HOUSE 

As under cover of departing day 
Slunk hunger-stricken Ramazan away, 

Once more within the potter's house alone 
I stood, surrounded by the shapes of clay. 

Shapes of all sorts and sizes, great and small, 
That stood along the floor and by the wall; 

And some loquacious vessels were; and some 
Listen'd perhaps, but never talk'd at all. 

Said one among them — " Surely not in vain 
My substance of the common earth was ta'en 

And to this figure moulded, to be broke, 
Or trampled back to shapeless earth again." 

Then said a second — " Ne'er a peevish boy 
Would break the bowl from which he drank in joy 

And he that with his hand the vessel made 
Will surely not in after wrath destroy." 



72 MELODIES 

After a momentary silence spake 
Some vessel of a more ungainly make; 

"They sneer at me for leaning all awry; 
What! did the hand then of the potter shake?" 

Whereat some one of the loquacious lot — 
I think a Sufi pipkin — waxing hot — 

"All this of pot and potter — Tell me then, 
Who is the potter, pray, and who the pot?" 

From Rubdiydt of Omar Khayyam 
[Iambics five] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 73 



LII 

HENRY VAUGHAN 

1622-1695 

THE FALLEN TREE 

Sure thou didst flourish once ! and many springs, 
Many bright mornings, much dew, many showers, 

Pass'd o'er thy head; many light hearts and wings, 
Which now are dead, lodg'd in thy living bowers. 

And still a new succession sings and flies; 

Fresh groves grow up, and their green branches shoot 
Towards the old and still enduring skies; 

While the low violet thrives at their root. 

From The Timber 
[Iambics five] 



74 MELODIES 



LIII 

THOMAS GRAY 

1716-1771 

THE ELEGY 

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, 
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, 

The plowman homeward plods his weary way, 
And leaves the world to darkness and to me. 

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, 
And all the air a solemn stillness holds, 

Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, 
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds. 

Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade 
Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap, 

Each in his narrow cell forever laid, 

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. 

For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, 
Or busy housewife ply her evening care; 

No children run to lisp their sire's return, 
Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share. 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 75 

Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, 

Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke; 

How jocund did they drive their team afield ! 

How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke! 

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife 
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray; 

Along the cool sequester'd vale of life 

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. 

Full many a gem of purest ray serene 

The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear: 

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 
And waste its sweetness on the desert air. 

Let not ambition mock their useful toil, 
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; 

Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile 
The short and simple annals of the poor. 

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r, 
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 

Await alike th' inevitable hour : — 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 

From Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard 
[Iambics five] 



76 MELODIES 



LIV 
JOHN KEATS 

1795-1821 

MELANCHOLY 

In the mid days of autumn, on their eves 

The breath of Winter comes from far away, 
And the sick west continually bereaves 

Of some gold tinge, and plays a roundelay 
Of death among the bushes and the leaves, 
To make all bare before he dares to stray 
From his north cavern. So sweet Isabel 
By gradual decay from beauty fell. 

And she forgot the stars, the moon, and sun, 
And she forgot the blue above the trees, 
And she forgot the dells where waters run, 

And she forgot the chilly autumn breeze; 
She had no knowledge when the day was done, 
And the new morn she saw not : soon to peace 
Among the dead, she'll wither, like a palm 
Cut by an Indian for its juicy balm. 

From Isabella 
[Iambics five] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 77 



LV 

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 

1807-1882 

THE TWO RIVERS 

O River of Yesterday, with current swift 

Through chasms descending, and soon lost to sight, 
I do not care to follow in their flight 
The faded leaves, that on thy bosom drift! 

River of To-morrow, I uplift 

Mine eyes, and thee I follow, as the night 
Wanes into morning, and the dawning light 
Broadens, and all the shadows fade and shift! 

1 follow, follow, where thy waters run 
Through unfrequented, unfamiliar fields, 
Fragrant with flowers and musical with song; 

Still follow, follow; sure to meet the sun, 
And confident, that what the future yields 
Will be the right, unless myself be wrong. 

From The Two Rivers, II 
[Iambics five] 



78 MELODIES 



LVI 
JOHN MILTON 

1608-1674 

ON HIS BLINDNESS 

When I consider how my light is spent 

Ere half my days in this dark world and wide, 
And that one Talent which is death to hide 
Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent 

To serve therewith my Maker, and present 
My true account, lest He returning chide, — 
" Doth God exact day-labor, light denied ? " 
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent 

That murmur, soon replies, " God doth not need 
Either man's work, or his own gifts. Who best 
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state 

Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed, 
And post o'er land and ocean without rest; 
They also serve who only stand and wait." 

On his Blindness 
[Iambics five] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 79 



LVII 

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 

1770-1850 

THE ONGOING SHIP 

With ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh, 

Like stars in heaven, and joyously it show'd; 

Some lying fast at anchor in the road, 
Some veering up and down, one knew not why. 
A goodly vessel did I then espy 

Come like a giant from a haven broad; 

And lustily along the bay she strode, 
Her tackling rich, and of apparel high. 
This ship was nought to me, nor I to her, 

Yet I pursued her with a lover's look; 
This ship to all the rest did I prefer: 

When will she turn, and whither ? She will brook 
No tarrying; where she comes the winds must stir; 

On went she, and due north her journey took. 

"With ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh " 
[Iambics five] 



80 MELODIES 



LVIII 

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 

1770-1850 

THE CROWDING WORLD 

The world is too much with us; late and soon, 

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers : 

Little we see in Nature that is ours; 
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon ! 
This sea that bares her bosom to the moon ; 

The winds that will be howling at all hours, 

And are up-gather'd now like sleeping flowers; 
For this, for everything, we are out of tune; 
It moves us not. — Great God ! I 'd rather be 

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; 
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, 

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn ; 
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; 

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. 

" The world is too much with us; hie and soon " 
[Iambics five] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 81 



LIX 

JOSEPH BLANCO WHITE 

1775-1841 

NIGHT AND DEATH 

Mysterious Night! when our first parent knew 
Thee from report divine, and heard thy name, 
Did he not tremble for this lovely frame, 

This glorious canopy of light and blue ? 

Yet 'neath a curtain of translucent dew, 

Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame, 
Hesperus with the host of heaven came, 

And lo! creation widen'd in man's view. 

Who could have thought such darkness lay conceaPd 
Within thy beams, O Sun ! or who could find, 

Whilst fly, and leaf, and insect stood reveaPd, 

That to such countless orbs thou mad'st us blind ? 
Why do we, then, shun death with anxious strife ? 
If light can thus deceive, wherefore not life ? 

Night and Death 
[Iambics five] 



82 MELODIES 



LX 
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 

1564-1616 % 

DESPONDENCY 

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, 

I all alone beweep my outcast state, 
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, 

And look upon myself, and curse my fate, 
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, 

Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd, 
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope, 

With what I most enjoy contented least; 
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, 

Haply I think on thee — and then my state, 
Like to the lark at break of day arising 

From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate; 
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings 
That then I scorn to change my state with kings. 

"When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes" 
[Iambics five] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 83 



LXI 
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 

1792-1822 

OZYMANDIAS 

I met a traveller from an antique land 

Who said : Two vast and trunkless legs of stone 
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, 

Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown, 
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, 
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read 
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things, 
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed : 
And on the pedestal these words appear : 
" My name is Ozymandias, king of kings : 

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair ! " 
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay 

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare 
The lone and level sands stretch far away. 

Ozymandias of Egypt 
[Iambics five] 



84 MELODIES 



LXII 

EDMUND SPENSER 

1552-1599 

GREAT THINGS AND SMALL 

For take thy balance, if thou be so wise, 
And weigh the wind that under heaven doth blow; 

Or weigh the light that in the east doth rise; 
Or weigh the thought that from man's mind doth flow : 
But if the weight of these thou canst not show, 
Weigh but one word which from thy lips doth fall : 

For how canst thou those greater secrets know 
That dost not know the least thing of them all ? 
Ill can he rule the great that cannot reach the small. 

From The Faerie Queene, Booh V, Canto II, 43 
[Iambics five and six] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 85 



LXIII 
JAMES BEATTIE 

1735-1803 

THE SOUNDS OF MORNING 

But who the melodies of morn can tell ? 
The wild brook babbling down the mountain-side ; 
The lowing herd; the sheepfold's simple bell; 
The pipe of early shepherd dim descried 
In the lone valley; echoing far and wide 
The clamorous horns along the cliffs above; 

The hollow murmur of the ocean-tide; 
The hum of bees, and linnet's lay of love, 
And the full choir that wakes the universal grove. 

From The Minstrel 
[Iambics five and six] 



86 MELODIES 



LXIV 
GEORGE GORDON NOEL BYRON 

1788-1824 

THE OCEAN 

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, 
There is a rapture on the lonely shore, 
There is society where none intrudes, 
By the deep sea, and music in its roar: 
I love not Man the less, but Nature more, 
From these our interviews, in which I steal 
From all I may be or have been before, 
To mingle with the Universe, and feel 
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal. 

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean, roll! 
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain; 
Man marks the earth with ruin, his control 
Stops with the shore; upon the watery plain 
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain 
A shadow of man's ravage, save his own, 

When, for a moment, like a drop of rain, 
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, 
Without a grave, unknell'd, uncofiin'd, and unknown. 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 87 

And I have loved thee, Ocean ! and my joy 
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be 

Borne, like thy bubbles, onward. From a boy 
I wanton 'd with thy breakers — they to me 
Were a delight; and if the freshening sea 
Made them a terror — 't was a pleasing fear, 

For I was as it were a child of thee, 
And trusted to thy billows far and near, 
And laid my hand upon thy mane — as I do here. 

From Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto IV 
[Iambics five and six] 



88 MELODIES 



LXV 
ALFRED TENNYSON 

1809-1892 
DAY-DREAMS 

"Courage!" he said, and pointed toward the land, 
"This mounting wave will roll us shoreward soon." 
In the afternoon they came unto a land 
In which it seemed always afternoon. 
All round the coast the languid air did swoon, 
Breathing like one that hath a weary dream. 

Full-faced above the valley stood the moon ; 
And, like a downward smoke, the slender stream 
Along the cliff to fall and pause and fall did seem. 

There is sweet music here that softer falls 
Than petals from blown roses on the grass, 

Or night-dews on still waters between walls 
Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass; 

Music that gentlier on the spirit lies, 

Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes; 

Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies. 

Here are cool mosses deep, 

And thro' the moss the ivies creep, 

And in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep, 

And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep. 

From The Lotos-Eaters 
[Iambics three, four, five, six] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 89 



LXVI 
MICHAEL DRAYTON 

1563-1631 

THE CHEERFUL DAY 

Then from her burnish'd gate the goodly glitt'ring East 
Guilds every lofty top, which late the humorous Night 
Bespangled had with pearl, to please the Morning's sight; 
On which the mirthful Choirs, with their clear open throats 
Unto the joyful Morn so strain their warbling notes, 
That Hills and Valleys ring, and even the echoing Air 
Seems all compos'd of sounds, about them everywhere. 
Thus sing away the Morn, until the mounting Sun, 
Through thick exhaled fogs, his golden head hath run, 
And through the twisted tops of our close Covert creeps, 
To kiss the gentle Shade, this while that sweetly sleeps. 

From Poly-Olbion, Song XIII 
[Iambics six] 



90 MELODIES 



LXVII 
ALFRED TENNYSON 

1809-1892 

THE GRANDMOTHER 

Why do you look at me, Annie ? You think I am hard and cold ; 
But all my children have gone before me, I am so old. 
I cannot weep for Willy, nor can I weep for the rest; 
Only at your age, Annie, I could have wept with the best. 

For mine is a time of peace, it is not often I grieve; 
I am oftener sitting at home in my father's farm at eve; 
And the neighbors come and laugh and gossip, and so do I; 
I find myself often laughing at things that have long gone by. 

And age is a time of peace, so it be free from pain, 
And happy has been my life; but I would not live it again. 
I seem to be tired a little, that 's all, and long for rest ; 
Only at your age, Annie, I could have wept with the best. 

From The Grandmother 
[Mixed iambics anapaestics six] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 91 



LXVIII 

GEORGE CHAPMAN 

1559-1634 

THE CAMP AT NIGHT 

They spent all night in open field ; fires round about them 

shined. 
As when about the silver moon, when air is free from wind, 
And stars shine clear, to whose sweet beams, high prospects, 

and the brows 
Of all steep hills and pinnacles thrust up themselves for shows, 
And even the lowly valleys joy to glitter in their sight, 
While the unmeasured firmament bursts to disclose her light, 
And all the signs in heaven are seen that glad the shepherd's 

heart ; 
So many fires disclosed their beams, so show'd the Trojan part. 

Translation of The Iliads of Homer, Book VIII, 553-561 

[Iambics seven] 



92 MELODIES 



LXIX 

GEORGE GORDON NOEL BYRON 

1788-1824 

LOOKING BACKWARD 

There 's not a joy the world can give like that it takes away, 
When the glow of early thought declines in feeling's dull decay ; 
'T is not on youth's smooth cheek the blush alone, which fades 

so fast, 
But the tender bloom of heart is gone, ere youth itself be past. 

Oh could I feel as I have felt, — or be what I have been, 
Or weep as I could once have wept, o'er many a vanish'd scene ; 
As springs in deserts found seem sweet, all brackish though 

they be, 
So midst the wither'd waste of life, those tears would flow to me. 

From Stanzas for Music 
[Iambics seven] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 93 



LXX 
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH 

1836-1907 

A MOOD 

^V. blight, a gloom, I know not what, has crept upon my glad- 
ness, 

Some vague, remote ancestral touch of sorrow or of madness ; 

A fear that is not fear, a pain that has not pain's insistence ; 

A sense of longing, or of loss, in some foregone existence; 

A subtle hurt that never pen has writ nor tongue has spoken. 

Such hurt perchance as Nature feels when a blossom'd bough is 
broken. 

A Mood 

[Iambics seven] 



94 MELODIES 



LXXI 
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 

1770-1850 

RECOLLECTIONS OF CHILDHOOD 

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, 

The earth, and every common sight, 
To me did seem 

Apparell'd in celestial light, 
The glory and the freshness of a dream. 
It is not now as it hath been of yore ; — 
Turn wheresoe'er I may, 
By night or day, 
The things which I have seen I now can see no more. 

The Rainbow comes and goes, 
And lovely is the Rose, — 
The Moon doth with delight 
Look round her when the heavens are bare; 

Waters on a starry night 
Are beautiful and fair; 

The sunshine is a glorious birth; 

But yet I know, where'er I go, 
That there hath past away a glory from the earth. 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 95 

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: 

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, 
Hath had elsewhere its setting, 
And cometh from afar: 

Not in entire forgetfulness, 
And not in utter nakedness, 
But trailing clouds of glory do we come 
From God, who is our home. 

Heaven lies about us in our infancy! 
Shades of the prison-house begin to close 

Upon the growing Boy, 
But he beholds the light, and whence it flows, 

He sees it in his joy; 
The Youth, who daily farther from the east 
Must travel, still is Nature's Priest, 

And by the vision splendid 

Is on his way attended ; 
At length the Man perceives it die away, 
And fade into the light of common day. 

From Intimations of Immortality from 
Recollections of Early Childhood 
[Iambics two, three, four, five, six] 



PART II 

TROCHAIC MOVEMENT 



LXXII 
ALFRED TENNYSON 

1809-1892 

THE OAK 

Live thy Life, 

Young and old, 
Like yon oak, 
Bright in spring, 
Living gold; 

Summer-rich 

Then; and then 
Autumn-changed, 
Soberer-hued 
Gold again. 

All his leaves 

Fallen at length, 
Look, he stands, 
Trunk and bough, 
Naked strength. 

The Oak 
[Trochaics two] 



100 MELODIES 



LXXIII 



PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 

1792-1822 

THINGS LOVED 

I love all that thou lovest, 

Spirit of delight! 
The fresh Earth in new leaves dress'd, 
And the starry night; 
Autumn evening, and the morn 
When the golden mists are born. 

I love snow, and all the forms 

Of the radiant frost; 
I love waves, and winds, and storms, 
Everything almost 
Which is Nature's, and may be 
Untainted by man's misery. 

I love Love — though he has wings, 

And like light can flee, 
But above all other things, 
Spirit, I love thee — 
Thou art love and life ! Oh come, 
Make once more my heart thy home. 

From Song: "Rarely, rarely comest thou " 
[Chiefly trochaics three, four] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 101 



LXXIV 
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 

1807-1882 

RISING SMOKE 

And the smoke rose slowly, slowly, 
Through the tranquil air of morning, 
First a single line of darkness, 
Then a denser, bluer vapor, 
Then a snow-white cloud unfolding, 
Like the tree-tops of the forest, 
Ever rising, rising, rising, 
Till it touch'd the top of heaven, 
Till it broke against the heaven, 
And roll'd outward all around it. 

From The Song of Hiawatha (The Peace-Pipe) 
[Trochaics four] 



102 MELODIES 



LXXV 
GEORGE WITHER 

1588-1667 

IN A GARDEN 

First the Primrose courts his eyes ; 
Then the Cowslip he espies; 
Next the Pansy seems to woo him; 
Then Carnations bow unto him. 
As half -fearing to be seen 
Prettily her leaves between 
Peeps the Violet, pale to see 
That her virtues slighted be ; 
Which so much his liking wins 
That to seize her he begins. 
Yet before he stoop'd so low 
He his wanton eye did throw 
On a stem that grew more high, 
And the Rose did there espy. 
Who, beside her precious scent, 
To procure his eyes content 
Did display her goodly breast, 
Where he found at full express'd 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 103 

All the good that Nature showers 
On a thousand other flowers ; 
Wherewith he affected takes it, 
His beloved flower he makes it, 
And without desire of more 
Walks through all he saw before. 

From Faire-Virtue, Mistresse of PhiVarete 
[Trochaics four] 



104 MELODIES 



LXXVI 
JOHN MILTON 

1608-1674 

THE GUARDIAN SPIRIT'S FAREWELL 

To the ocean now I fly, 
And those happy climes that lie 
Where day never shuts his eye, 
Up in the broad fields of the sky. 

Mortals, that would follow me, 
Love Virtue, she alone is free; 
She can teach you how to climb 
Higher than the sphery chime: 
Or, if Virtue feeble were, 
Heaven itself would stoop to her. 

From Comus, III 
[Chiefly trochaics four] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 105 



[Chiefly trochaics four] 



LXXVII 
WILLIAM BLAKE 

1757-1827 

THE TIGER 

Tigek ! Tiger ! burning bright 
In the forests of the night, 
What immortal hand or eye 
Could frame thy fearful symmetry ? 

And what shoulder, and what art, 
Could twist the sinews of thy heart? 
And when thy heart began to beat, 
What dread hand form'd thy dread feet? 

What the hammer ? what the chain ? 
Knit thy strength and forged thy brain ? 
What the anvil ? what dread grasp 
Dared thy deadly terrors clasp ? 

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright 

In the forests of the night, 

Did he smile his work to see ? 

Did he who made the Lamb make thee ? 

From The Tyger 



106 MELODIES 



LXXVIII 



ALICE FREEMAN PALMER 

1855-1902 

THE TEMPEST 

He shall give His angels charge 

Over thee in all thy ways. 
Though the thunders roam at large, 

Though the lightning round me plays, 
Like a child I lay my head 
In sweet sleep upon my bed. 

Though the terror comes so close, 

It shall have no power to smite; 
It shall deepen my repose, 

Turn the darkness into light. 
Touch of angels' hands is sweet; 
Not a stone shall hurt my feet. 

All Thy waves and billows go 

Over me to press me down 

Into arms so strong I know 

They will never let me drown. 

Ah, my God, how good Thy will ! 

I will nestle and be still. 

The Tempest 
[Trochaics four] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 107 



LXXIX 



HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 

1807-1882 

THE CHIMES 

In the ancient town of Bruges, 
In the quaint old Flemish city, 
As the evening shades descended, 
Low and loud and sweetly blended, 
Low .at times and loud at times, 
And changing like a poet's rhymes, 
Rang the beautiful wild chimes 
From the Belfry in the market 
Of the ancient town of Bruges. 

Oft amid my broken slumbers 
Still I hear those magic numbers, 
As they loud proclaim'd the flight 
And stolen marches of the night; 
Till their chimes in sweet collision 
Mingle with each wandering vision, 

Mingle with the fortune-telling 
Gipsy-bands of dreams and fancies, 
Which amid the waste expanses 
Of the silent land of trances 

Have their solitary dwelling. 

From The Belfry of Bruges (Carillon) 
[Trochaics four] 



108 MELODIES 



LXXX 
EDGAR ALLAN POE 

1809-1849 

THE RAVEN 

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I ponder'd, weak and 

weary, 

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, — 

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, 

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. 

" 'T is some visitor," I mutter'd, "tapping at my chamber 

door: 

Only this and nothing more." 

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, 
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the 
floor; 
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token. 
" Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore, 
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore ; 
'T is the wind and nothing more." 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 109 

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and 
flutter, 
In there stepp'd a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore, 
Not the least obeisance made he; not an instant stopp'd or 
stay'd he; 
But, with mien of lord or lady, perch'd above my chamber 

door, 
Perch'd upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door : 
Perch'd, and sat, and nothing more. 

From The Raven 
[Trochaics four, eight] 



110 MELODIES 



LXXXI 
ALFRED TENNYSON 

1809-1892 

THE PROMISE OF THE SKIES 

Many a night from yonder ivied casement, ere I went to rest, 
Did I look on great Orion sloping slowly to the west. 

Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro' the mellow shade, 
Glitter like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid. 

Here about the beach I wander' d, nourishing a youth sublime 
With the fairy tales of science, and the long result of time ; 

When the centuries behind me like a fruitful land reposed ; 
When I clung to all the present for the promise that it closed ; 

When I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, 
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be ; 

Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails, 
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales ; 

Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain'd a ghastly 

dew 
From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue ; 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 111 

Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing 

warm, 
With the standards of the people plunging thro' the thunder 

storm ; 

Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle-flags were 

furl'd 
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world. 

Yet I doubt not thro' the ages one increasing purpose runs, 

And the thoughts of men are widen'd with the process of the 

suns. 

From Locksley Hall 
[Trochaics eight] 



112 MELODIES 



LXXXII 



CHARLES LAMB 

1775-1834 

THE OLD FAMILIAR FACES 

I have had playmates, I have had companions, 
In my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days; 
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. 

Ghost-like I paced round the haunts of my childhood, 
Earth seem'd a desert I was bound to traverse, 
Seeking to find the old familiar faces. 

Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother, 
Why wert not thou born in my father's dwelling ? 
So might we talk of the old familiar faces, 

How some they have died, and some they have left me, 
And some are taken from me; all are departed; 
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. 

From The Old Familiar Faces 

[Mixed trochaics, free disposal of accent] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 113 



LXXXIII 

EDGAR ALLAN POE 

1809-1849 

SLEIGH BELLS 

Hear the sledges with the bells, 
Silver bells ! 
What a world of merriment their melody foretells ! 
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, 

In the icy air of night ! 
While the stars, that oversprinkle 
All the heavens, seem to twinkle 
With a crystalline delight; 
Keeping time, time, time, 
In a sort of Runic rhyme, 
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells 
From the bells, bells, bells, bells, 
Bells, bells, bells — 
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. 

From The Bells 
[Trochaics, free disposal of accent] 



PART III 

ANAPiESTIC MOVEMENT 



LXXXIV 
ROBERT BROWNING 

1812-1889 

A GREETING OF THE MORNING 

The year 's at the spring 
And day 's at the morn ; 
Morning *s at seven ; 
The hillside 's dew-pearl'd; 
The lark 's on the wing; 
The snail 's on the thorn: 
God 's in his heaven — 
All 's right with the world ! 

From Pippa Passes (I, Morning) 
[Mixed anapaestics two] 



118 MELODIES 



LXXXV 
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 

1792-1822 

FLEETING JOY 

When the lamp is shatter'd, 
The light in the dust lies dead ; 

When the cloud is scatter 'd, 
The rainbow's glory is shed. 

When the lute is broken, 
Sweet tones are remember' d not; 

When the lips have spoken, 
Loved accents are soon forgot. 

As music and splendor 
Survive not the lamp and the lute, 

The heart's echoes render 
No song when the spirit is mute : — 

No song but sad dirges, 
Like the wind through a ruin'd cell, 

Or the mournful surges 
That ring the dead seaman's knell. 

From Lines: "When the lamp is shatter'd." 
[Mixed anapsestics two, three] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 119 



LXXXVI 
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 

1792-1822 

THE CLOUD 

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers, 

From the seas and the streams; 
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid 

In their noonday dreams. 
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken 

The sweet buds every one, 
When rock'd to rest on their mother's breast, 

As she dances about the sun. 
I wield the flail of the lashing hail, 

And whiten the green plains under, 
And then again I dissolve it in rain, 

And laugh as I pass in thunder. 



120 MELODIES 

I sift the snow on the mountains below, 

And their great pines groan aghast; 
And all the night 't is my pillow white, 

While I sleep in the arms of the blast. 
Sublime on the towers of my skyey bowers 

Lightning my pilot sits, 
In a cavern under is fetter'd the thunder, 

It struggles and howls at fits. 
I am the daughter of earth and water, 

And the nursling of the sky; 
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores; 

I change, but I cannot die. 

From The Cloud 
[Mixed anapsestics two, three, four] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 121 



LXXXVII 

WILLIAM COWPER 

1731-1800 

THE SOLITARY 

I am monarch of all I survey, 

My right there is none to dispute, 
From the centre all round to the sea, 

I am lord of the fowl and the brute. 
O solitude ! where are the charms 

That sages have seen in thy face ? 
Better dwell in the midst of alarms, 

Than reign in this horrible place. 

Religion ! what treasure untold 

Lies hid in that heavenly word ! 

More precious than silver or gold, 
Or all that this earth can afford. 

But the sound of the church-going bell, 
These valleys and rocks never heard, 

Never sigh'd at the sound of a knell, 

Or smiled when a sabbath appear 'd. 



122 MELODIES 

. Ye winds that have made me your sport, 

Convey to this desolate shore 
Some cordial endearing report 

Of a land I shall visit no more ! 
My friends, do they now and then send 

A wish or a thought after me ? 
O tell me I yet have a friend, 

Though a friend I am never to see. 

From Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk, dur- 
ing his Solitary Abode in the Island of Juan Fernandez 
[Chiefly anapsestics three] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 123 



LXXXVIII 
CHARLES WOLFE 

1791-1823 

THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE 

Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, 
As his corpse to the rampart we hurried; 

Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot 

O'er the grave where our hero we buried. 

We buried him darkly at dead of night, 
The sods with our bayonets turning; 

By the struggling moonbeam's misty light 
And the lantern dimly burning. 

No useless coffin enclosed his breast, 

Not in sheet or in shroud we wound him; 

But he lay like a warrior taking his rest, 
With his martial cloak around him. 



■ 



Few and short were the prayers we said, 
And we spoke not a word of sorrow; 

But we steadfastly gazed on the face that was dead, 
And we bitterly thought of the morrow. 



124 MELODIES 

But half of our heavy task was done 

AYhen the clock struck the hour for retiring: 

And we heard the distant and random gun 
That the foe was sullenly firing. 

Slowly and sadly we laid him down, 

From the field of his fame fresh and gory; 

We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone, 
But we left him alone with his glory. 

From Burial of Sir John Moore 
[Mixed anapaestics three, four] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 125 



LXXXIX 

THOMAS NASH 

1567-1601 

SPRING 

Spring, the sweet Spring, is the year's pleasant king; 
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring, 
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing, 
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo ! 

The palm and may make country houses gay, 
Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day, 
And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay, 
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo. 

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet, 
Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit, 
In every street these tunes our ears do greet, 
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo! 
Spring! the sweet Spring! 

From Summer's Last Will and Testament 
[Anapaest ics four, iambics five, refrain iambics five] 



126 MELODIES 



XC 

WILLIAM COWPER 

1731-1800 

THE POPLAR FIELD 

The poplars are fell'd ; farewell to the shade 
And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade! 
The winds play no longer and sing in the leaves, 
Nor Ouse on his bosom their image receives. 

Twelve years have elapsed since I first took a view 
Of my favorite field, and the bank where they grew : 
And now in the grass behold they are laid, 
And the tree is my seat that once lent me a shade ! 

The blackbird has fled to another retreat, 
Where the hazels afford him a screen from the heat; 
And the scene where his melody charm'd me before 
Resounds with his sweet-flowing ditty no more. 

The change both my heart and my fancy employs; 
I reflect on the frailty of man and his joys : 
Short-lived as we are, yet our pleasures, we see, 
Have a still shorter date, and die sooner than we. 

From The Poplar Field 
[Chiefly anapsestics four] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 127 



XCI 

ROBERT BROWNING 

1812-1889 

DAVID GOES TO CURE THE KING 

Then I, as was meet, 
Knelt down to the God of my fathers, and rose on my feet, 
And ran o'er the sand burnt to powder. The tent was unloop'd ; 
I pull'd up the spear that obstructed, and under I stoop'd ; 
Hands and knees on the slippery grass-patch, all wither'd and 

gone, 
That extends to the second enclosure, I groped my way on 
Till I felt where the foldskirts fly open. Then once more I 

pray'd, 
And open'd the foldskirts and enter'd, and was not afraid 
But spoke, "Here is David, thy servant!" And no voice re- 
plied. 
At the first I saw nought but the blackness : but soon I descried 
A something more black than the blackness — the vast, the 

upright 
Main prop which sustains the pavilion : and slow into sight 
Grew a figure against it, gigantic and blackest of all. 
Then a sunbeam, that burst through the tent-roof, show'd Saul. 

From Saul 
[Anapsestics five] 



128 MELODIES 



XCII 

ALFRED TENNYSON 

1809-1892 

THE MAY QUEEN 

You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear ; 
To-morrow 'ill be the happiest time of all the glad New-year ; 
Of all the glad New-year, mother, the maddest merriest day, 
For I 'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I 'm to be Queen o ' 
the May. 

The honeysuckle round the porch has woven its wavy bowers, 

And by the meadow-trenches blow the faint sweet cuckoo- 
flowers ; 

And the wild marsh-marigold shines like fire in swamps and 
hollows gray, 

And I 'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I 'm to be Queen o' 
the May. 

The night-winds come and go, mother, upon the meadow-grass, 
And the happy stars above them seem to brighten as they pass ; 
There will not be a drop of rain the whole of the livelong day, 
And I 'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I 'm to be Queen o* 
the May. 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 129 

All the valley, mother, 'ill be fresh and green and still, 
And the cowslip and the crowfoot are over all the hill, 
And the rivulet in the flowery dale 'ill merrily glance and play, 
For I 'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I 'm to be Queen o' 
the May. 

So you must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear, 

To-morrow 'ill be the happiest time of all the glad New-year ; 

To-morrow 'ill be of all the year the maddest merriest day, 

For I 'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I 'm to be Queen o' 

the May. 

From The May Queen 
[Mixed anapaestics iambics seven] 



130 MELODIES 



XCIII 
SIDNEY LANIER 

1842-1881 

THE INCOMING TIDE 

And the sea lends large, as the marsh : lo, out of his plenty the 

sea 
Pours fast : full soon the time of the flood-tide must be : 
Look how the grace of the sea doth go 
About and about through the intricate channels that flow 
Here and there, 
Everywhere, 
Till his waters have flooded the uttermost creeks and the low- 
lying lanes, 
And the marsh is mesh'd with a million veins, 
That like as with rosy and silvery essences flow 
In the rose-and-silver evening glow. 
Farewell, my lord Sun ! 
The creeks overflow: a thousand rivulets run 
'Twixt the roots of the sod ; the blades of the marsh-grass stir; 
Passeth a hurrying sound of wings that westward whirr; 
Passeth, and all is still ; and the currents cease to run ; 
And the sea and the marsh are one. 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 131 

How still the plains of the water be! 
The tide is in his ecstasy; 
The tide is at his highest height; 
And it is night. 

From The Marshes of Glynn 
[Mixed anapaestics, free disposal of accent] 



PART IV 

DACTYLIC MOVEMENT 



XCIV 
ROBERT BROWNING 

1812-1889 

CREATIVE MOMENTS 

Such a starved bank of moss 

Till, that May-morn, 
Blue ran the flash across : 

Violets were born ! 

Sky — what a scowl of cloud 

Till, near and far, 
Ray on ray split the shroud : 

Splendid, a star! 

World — how it wall'd about 

Life with disgrace 
Till God's own smile came out: 

That was thy face ! 

From The Two Poets of Croisic 
[Dactylics two x ] 

1 For dactylics two, see In Praise of Rhythm, by William Watson, Pre- 
liminary Leaves. 



136 MELODIES 



XCV 



MATTHEW ARNOLD 

1822-1888 

THE LEADERS 

Then, in such hour of need 

Of your fainting, dispirited race, 

Ye, like angels, appear, 

Radiant with ardor divine! 

Beacons of hope, ye appear! 

Languor is not in your heart, 

Weakness is not in your word, 

Weariness not on your brow. 

Ye alight in our van ! at your voice, 

Panic, despair, flee away. 

Ye move through the ranks, recall 

The stragglers, refresh the outworn, 

Praise, re-inspire the brave! 

Order, courage, return. 

Eyes rekindling, and prayers, 

Follow your steps as ye go. 

Ye fill up the gaps in our files, 

Strengthen the wavering line, 

Stablish, continue our march, 

On, to the bound of the waste, 

On, to the City of God. 

From Rugby Chapel 
[Mixed chiefly dactylics three] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 137 



XCVI 
ROBERT BROWNING 

1812-1889 

THE PLACE FOR THE NEST 

This is the spray the Bird clung to, 
Making it blossom with pleasure, 

Ere the high tree-top she sprung to, 
Fit for her nest and her treasure. 
Oh, what a hope beyond measure 

Was the poor spray's, which the flying feet hung 
to, — 

So to be singled out, built in, and sung to. 

From Misconceptions 
[Dactylics three, four] 



138 MELODIES 



XCVII 
ALFRED TENNYSON 

1809-1892 

CRADLE SONG 

Sweet and low, sweet and low, 

Wind of the western sea, 
Low, low, breathe and blow, 

Wind of the western sea ! 
Over the rolling waters go, 
Come from the dying moon, and blow, 

Blow him again to me; 
While my little one, while my pretty one sleeps. 

Sleep and rest, sleep and rest, 

Father will come to thee soon ; 

Rest, rest, on mother's breast, 

Father will come to thee soon; 

Father will come to his babe in the nest, 

Silver sails all out of the west 
Under the silver moon; 
Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep. 

From The Princess, Part I 
[Mixed dactylics three, four, five] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 139 



XCVIII 
ROBERT BROWNING 

1812-1889 

THE GALLOP 

Boot, saddle, to horse, and away! 
Rescue my castle before the hot day 
Brightens to blue from its silvery gray. 

Chorus. — Boot, saddle, to horse, and away! 

Ride past the suburbs, asleep as you 'd say; 
Many 's the friend there, will listen and pray, 
" God's luck to gallants that strike up the lay — 
Chorus. — "Boot, saddle, to horse, and away! " 

Forty miles off, like a roebuck at bay, 
Flouts Castle Brancepeth the Roundheads' array: 
Who laughs, "Good fellows ere this, by my fay, 
Chorus. — "Boot, saddle, to horse, and away! " 

Who ? My wife Gertrude ; that, honest and gay, 
Laughs when you talk of surrendering, "Nay! 
"I 've better counsellors ; what counsel they? 
Chorus. — "Boot, saddle, to horse, and away !" 

From Cavalier Tunes (III, Boot and Saddle) 
[Dactylics four] 



140 MELODIES 



XCIX 
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 

1807-1882 

THE BLACKSMITH 

Swiftly they hurried away to the forge of Basil the blacksmith. 
There at the door they stood, with wondering eyes to behold 

him 
Take in his leathern lap the hoof of the horse as a plaything, 
Nailing the shoe in its place; while near him the tire of the 

cart-wheel 
Lay like a fiery snake, coil'd round in a circle of cinders. 
Oft on autumnal eves, when without in the gathering darkness 
Bursting with light seem'd the smithy, through every cranny 

and crevice, 
Warm by the forge within they watch'd the laboring bellows, 
And as its panting ceased, and the sparks expired in the ashes, 
Merrily laugh' d, and said they were nuns going into the chapel. 

From Evangeline, Part I 
[Chiefly dactylics six] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 141 



ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH 

1819-1861 

THE TIDE 

As at return of tide the total weight of ocean, 

Drawn by moon and sun from Labrador and Greenland, 

Sets-in amain, in the open space betwixt Mull and Scarba, 

Heaving, swelling, spreading the might of the mighty Atlantic ; 

There into cranny and slit of the rocky, cavernous bottom 

Settles down, and with dimples huge the smooth sea-surface 

Eddies, coils, and whirls ; by dangerous Corryvreckan : 

So in my soul of souls, through its cells and secret recesses, 

Comes back, swelling and spreading, the old democratic fervor. 

From The Bothie of Tober-Na-Vuolich, Part IX 

[Mixed dactylics trochaics six] 



PART V 

POEMS OF REVERENCE 



CI 
ALFRED TENNYSON 

1809-1892 

VASTNESS 

Many a hearth upon our dark globe sighs after many a van- 

ish'd face, 
Many a planet by many a sun may roll with the dust of a van- 

ish'd race. 

Fame blowing out from her golden trumpet a jubilant challenge 

to Time and to Fate; 
Slander, her shadow, sowing the nettle on all the laurell'd 

graves of the great; 

National hatreds of whole generations, and pigmy spites of 

the village spire; 
Vows that will last to the last death-ruckle, and vows that 

are snapt in a moment of fire; 

Stately purposes, valor in battle, glorious annals of army and 

fleet, 
Death for the right cause, death for the wrong cause, trumpets 

of victory, groans of defeat; 



146 MELODIES 

Raving politics, never at rest — as this poor earth's pale his- 
tory runs, — 

What is it all but a trouble of ants in the gleam of a million 
million of suns? 

What but a murmur of gnats in the gloom, or a moment's 
anger of bees in their hive ? 

Peace, let it be ! for I loved him, and love him for ever : the 

dead are not dead but alive. 

From Vastness 
[Mixed dactylics eight] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 147 



CII 

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 

1770-1850 

NATURE 

These beauteous forms, 
Through a long absence, have not been to me 
As a landscape to a blind man's eye: 
But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din 
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them, 
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet, 
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart; 
And passing even into my purer mind, 
With tranquil restoration : — feelings too 
Of unremember'd pleasure: such, perhaps, 
As have no slight or trivial influence 
On that best portion of a good man's life, 
His little, nameless, unremember'd, acts 
Of kindness and of love. Nor less, I trust, 
To them I may have owed another gift, 
Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood, 
In which the burthen of the mystery, 
In which the heavy and the weary weight 
Of all this unintelligible world, 



148 MELODIES 

Is lighten'd : — that serene and blessed mood, 
In which the affections gently lead us on, — 
Until, the breath of this corporeal frame 
And even the motion of our human blood 
Almost suspended, we are laid asleep 
In body, and become a living soul : 
While with an eye made quiet by the power 
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy, 
We see into the life of things. 

From Lines, composed a few miles above T intern Abbey, on Re- 
visiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13, 1798 
[Iambics five] 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 149 



cm 



ROBERT BROWNING 

1812-1889 

LOVE 

O lyric Love, half angel and half bird 
And all a wonder and a wild desire, — 
Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun, 
And sang a kindred soul out to his face, — 
Hail thou, and harken from the realms of help ! 

Never may I commence my song, my due 
To God who best taught song by gift of thee, 
Except with bent head and beseeching hand — 
That still, despite the distance and the dark, 
What was, again may be; some interchange 
Of grace, some splendor once thy very thought, 
Some benediction anciently thy smile: 
— Never conclude, but raising hand and head 
Thither where eyes, that cannot reach, yet yearn 
For all hope, all sustainment, all reward, 
Their utmost up and on, — so blessing back 
In those thy realms of help, that heaven thy home, 
Some whiteness which, I judge, thy face makes proud, 
Some wanness where, I think, thy foot may fall ! 

From The Ring and the Booh 

(I, The Ring and the Book) 
[Iambics five] 



150 MELODIES 



CIV 
ALFRED TENNYSON 

1809-1892 

THE HERO 

Yea, let all good things await 

Him who cares not to be great 

But as he saves or serves the state. 

Not once or twice in our rough island-story 

The path of duty was the way to glory. 

He that walks it, only thirsting 

For the right, and learns to deaden 

Love of self, before his journey closes, 
He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting 
Into glossy purples, which outredden 

All voluptuous garden-roses. 
Not once or twice in our fair island-story 
The path of duty was the way to glory. 
He, that ever following her commands, 
On with toil of heart and knees and hands, 
Thro' the long gorge to the far light has won 

His path upward, and prevail'd, 

Shall find the toppling crags of Duty scaled 
Are close upon the shining table-lands 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 151 

To which our God Himself is moon and sun. 

Such was he : his work is done. 

Speak no more of his renown. 

Lay your earthly fancies down, 

And in the vast cathedral leave him. 

God accept him, Christ receive him ! 

From Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington 
[Chiefly trochaics three, four, five] 



152 MELODIES 



cv 

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 

1807-1882 

THE STATE 

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! 
Sail on, O Union, strong and great! 

Humanity with all its fears, 

With all the hopes of future years, 
Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! 
We know what Master laid thy keel, 
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, 

Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, 
What anvils rang, what hammers beat, 
In what a forge and what a heat 

Were shaped the anchors of thy hope ! 
Fear not each sudden .sound and shock, 
'T is of the wave and not the rock; 
'T is but the flapping of the sail, 
And not a rent made by the gale ! 
In spite of rock and tempest's roar, 
In spite of false lights on the shore, 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 153 

Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! 

Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee, 
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, 

Are all with thee, — are all with thee ! 

From The Building of the Ship 
[Iambics four] 



154 MELODIES 



CVI 
ISAAC WATTS 

1674-1748 

GOD 

Our God, our help in ages past, 
Our hope for years to come; 

Our shelter from the stormy blast, 
And our eternal home : — 

Under the shadow of thy throne 
The saints have dwelt secure; 

Sufficient is thine arm alone, 
And our defence is sure. 

Before the hills in order stood, 
Or earth received her frame, 

From everlasting thou art God, 
To endless years the same. 

A thousand ages, in thy sight, 
Are like an evening gone; 

Short as the watch that ends the night, 
Before the rising sun. 



OF ENGLISH VERSE 155 

Time, like an ever-rolling stream, 

Bears all its sons away; 
They fly, forgotten, as a dream 

Dies at the opening day. 

Our God, our help in ages past, 

Our hope for years to come, 
Be thou our guard while troubles last, 

And our eternal home. 

Psalm XC, 1-5, First Part 
(Man Frail and God Eternal) 
[Iambics three, four] 



And therefore, I said, Glaucon, that training in 
'poetry is a more potent instrument than any other, be- 
cause rhythm and harmony find their way into the in- 
ward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, 
imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is 
rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated 
ungraceful ; and also because he who has received this 
true education of the inner being will most shrewdly 
perceive omissions or faults in art and nature, and with 
a true taste, while he praises and rejoices over and re- 
ceives into his soul the good, and becomes noble and 
good, he will justly blame and hate the bad, now in the 
days of his youth, even before he is able to know the rea- 
son why ; and when reason comes he will recognize and 
salute the friend with whom his education has made him 
long familiar. 

Plato, Republic, III, Jfi<2. 



NOTES AND INDEXES 



NOTES 

The symbol ' denotes an accented syllable, the symbol + an unaccented one, 
and the symbol ( ) an omitted portion of a foot. Verses ending with an incom- 
plete foot are called catalectic. If a portion of a foot is omitted at the beginning 
of the verse, the verse is said to be truncated. An extra unaccented syllable 
in the foot at the end of the line does not change the foot but makes a double 
ending of the line. An extra unaccented syllable in the foot at the beginning 
of a line makes what is called anacrusis without changing the character of the 
verse. An exceptional foot may be substituted for the typical foot, and the 
verse become irregular and sometimes decidedly irregular as these substi- 
tutions are more or less frequent. But any verse while retaining on the whole 
its peculiar rhythm may begin with an accented syllable and the same is true 
of a verse-section after a pause. Sometimes a two syllable foot with equally 
accented syllables is found in verse. Such a foot is a spondee. The symbol / / 
denotes a rhythmic pause in the line and such a pause is called a caesura. In 
a rhythmic pause, no syllable is dropped, but in a compensating pause, a 
portion of a foot is omitted and this omission is indicated by the symbol ( ). 

A verse is named by its prevailing foot, — iambic, trochaic, anapaestic, 
dactylic. 

By iambic is meant -f- ' 

By trochaic is meant ' + 

By anapaestic is meant + + ' 

By dactylic is meant ' + -f- 

As the terms are here used, foot iambic means verse is regular, Prevailing 
foot iambic means verse is irregular. Mixed prevailing foot iambic means verse 
is decidedly irregular. Trochaic, anapaestic, and dactylic verse are also simi- 
larly divided and classified. 

SCHEMES OF SCANSION 

In Memoriam, Tennyson. Selection XXIV 

Foot iambic, four accent 

first stanza 

Four Line Stanza 1 +'/ + '/ + '/ + '/ a rhyme 

2 +'/ + '/ + '/ + '/ b 



162 NOTES AND INDEXES 

Four Line Stanza 3 +'/ + '/ + '/ + '/ b rhyme 
4 + '/ + '/ + '/ + '/ a 

Stanzas for Music, Byron. Selection LXIX 
Foot iambic, seven accent 

FIRST STANZA 

Four Line Stanza 1 + '/ + '/ + '/ + '// + '/ + '/+ '/ a rhyme 

2 + + 7 + 7 + 7 + 7/ + 7 + 7 + '/a 

3 + '/ + '/ + '/ + '/ + '// + '/ + '/ b. 

The Oak, Tennyson. Selection LXXII 
Foot trochaic, two accent 

FIRST STANZA 



Five Line Stanza 


1 


'+/'() 


a rhyme 




2 


'+/'() 


b 




3 


'■+/'() 


c 




4 


'+/'<) 


d 




5 


'+/'() 


b 



The Old Familiar Faces, Lamb. Selection LXXXII 
Prevailing foot trochaic, four, five, and six accent 

FIRST TWO STANZAS 

Three Line Stanza 1 ' + + /'+//'+/ '+/'+/ unrhymed 

2'+ /'+ /' + //'+ /'+/'+/ 
3 '()/'+ /'// + /'+/'+ /*+ / 

1 "'+ + /'// + + /'+ + /'+ / 
2'+ + /'+ //'+ /'+ /' + / 
3 '+ + /'+ //'+ /'+ /' + / 

Burial of Sir John Moore, Wolfe. Selection LXXXVIII 
Mixed prevailing foot anapaestic, three and four accent 

FOURTH AND FIFTH STANZAS 

Four Line Stanza 1 ( ) ' / + '/++'/ + '/ a rhyme 

2 ++'/++'/ + '+/ b 

3 ++ , / + + , /+ + '/ + + '/a 

4 ++'/ + + ' / + + '+/ b 



NOTES AND INDEXES 



163 



Four Line Stanza 1 
2 
3 
4 



+ '/ + +' / + '/ + '/ aa rhyme 

+ ■+'/++'/+ + '+/ b 

+ +'/ + '/++'/ + '/ a 

+ +'/ + ' / + + '+/ b. 



Spring, Nash. Selection LXXXB£ 
Foot anapaestic and iambic, four and five accent ; refrain iambic, five 

accent 



FIRST TWO STANZAS 



Four Line Stanza 1 

2 
3 

4 


()'/+ + '// + +' /+ +' 

()'/ + +' // + +'/ + +' 
()'/ + + '//+' / + '/+' 

+ '/ + '/ + ' // + '/ + '/ 


/ 
/ 


a rhyme 

a 

a 

b 


1 

2 
3 

4 


+ '/ + '// + '/ + '/ + '/ 
4-'/ + '/ + '// + '/ + '/ 
+ '/ + '/ + '// + '/ + '/ 




a 
a 
a 
b 



Couplets 



1 






2 


+ 


'/ + 


3 


+ 


'/ + 


4 


+ 


' / + 



+ 


'/ + 


+ 


'/ 


a rhyme 


+ 


'/ + 


+ 


'/ 


a 


+ 


'/ + + 


'/ 


b 


+ 


'/ + 


+ 


'/ 


b 



Blank Verse 



Saul, Browning. Selection XCI 

Foot anapaestic, five accent 

first two couplets 

+ '/ + +'/ + //- 
+ '/ + +'/ + // 

+ '/ + +'/ + // 

Evangeline, Longfellow. Selection XCIX 

Prevailing foot dactylic, six accent 

first four lines 

1 '+ + /'+ + /' // + + / , + / r + + /'+/ unrhymed 
2'+ + /'+/' // + /'+ + /' + + /'+/ 

3' + + /'+/'// + /'+ + / / + + / , + / 
4'+ + /'+ + / , // + / / + + /'+ + /'+/ 



METRES 



BLANK VERSE 

Unrhymed four and five syllable, 
two accent verse, catalectic, and 
with alliteration or beginning- 
rhyme regular in Anglo-Saxon 
verse. Foot dactylic. 
Unrhymed three accent verse, 
catalectic. Prevailing foot dac- 
tylic. 

Unrhymed three and five accent 
verse. Foot iambic. 

Unrhymed four accent verse. 
Foot trochaic. 



Unrhymed heroic or five accent 
verse. Foot iambic. 
Same as above. 

Same as above. 

Same as above, but with quite 
constant double endings, which 
are used as a test to mark off the 
share of Fletcher in the author- 
ship of this play. 
Unrhymed heroic or five accent 
verse. Foot iambic. 
Same as above, except for one 
Alexandrine or six iambic verse. 



From England my 

Mother Watson vii 



Rugby Chapel Arnold 



136 



Ode to Even- 
ing Collins 30 
The Song 

of Hiawatha 

(The Peace- 

Pipe) Longfellow 101 

Romeo and 

Juliet, I, 4 Shakespeare 48 
King Henry 

V, III, 1 Shakespeare 49 
As You Like 

It, II, 7 Shakespeare 50 

King Henry 

VIII, III, 2 Shakespeare 52 



Paradise Lost, 

Book IV Milton 54 

The Prelude, 

Book I Wordsworth 55 



166 



NOTES AND INDEXES 



Unrhymed heroic or five accent 
verse. Foot iambic. 



Same as above. 

Same as above. 
Same as above. 

Same as above. 

Same as above. 



Unrhymed four, five, and six ac- 
cent verse, and each third verse 
with a refrain marking the end 
of the stanza. See Notes. 
Mixed prevailing foot trochaic. 
Unrhymed Alexandrine or six 
accent verse. Foot iambic. 
Unrhymed hexameter or six ac- 
cent verse. Prevailing foot dac- 
tylic, except in first two verses, 
which are trochaic. 
Same as above. See Notes. 
Prevailing foot dactylic. 

COUPLETS 

Seven and eight syllable four ac- 
cent verse, with the seven syllable 
verse catalectic and the eight syl- 
lable couplets having two sylla- 
ble rhymes. Foot trochaic. 



From Lines, composed 




a few miles 






above Tintern 




Abbey 


Wordsworth 


147 


" Hyperion, 






Book I 


Keats 


56 


" Ulysses 


Tennyson 


57 


" Fra Lippo 






Lippi 


Browning 


58 


" The Ring and 






the Book, I 


Browning 


149 


" The Earthly 






Paradise 






(Prologue of 






The Wander- 






ers) 


Morris 


60 


" The Old Fa- 






miliar Faces 


Lamb 


112 



Poly-Olbion, 






Song XIII 


Drayton 


89 


The Bothie of 






Tober-Na- 






Vuolich, 






Part IX 


Clough 


141 


Evangeline, 






Parti 


Longfellow 


140 


Faire-Virtue, 






Mistresse of 






PhiFarete 


Wither 


102 



NOTES AND INDEXES 

Seven and eight syllable, four From Comus, III 
accent verse, mostly catalectic. 
Prevailing foot trochaic. 
Seven and eight syllable four ac- 
cent verse, mostly truncated. 
Iambics four. 

Eight syllable four accent verse. 
Foot iambic. 
Same as above. 

HEROIC COUPLETS 

Ten syllable five accent verse. 
Foot iambic. 

Same as above except for one six 

accent verse. 

Ten syllable five accent verse. 

Foot iambic. 

Same as above. 

Same as above, but with occa- 
sional double ending. 

COUPLETS 

Fourteen and fifteen syllable five 
accent verse. See Notes. 
Foot anapaestic. 

Fourteen syllable seven accent 
verse. Foot iambic. 



Fifteen syllable seven accent 
verse with constant double end- 
ing. Foot iambic. 

Fifteen syllable eight accent 
verse, catalectic. Foot trochaic. 



Milton 



II Penseroso Milton 



Snow-Bound Whittier 



167 
104 

32 

33 



The Building 






of the Ship 


Longfellow 


152 


Hero and Le- 






ander, Second 




Sestiad 


Marlowe 


61 


Essay on Crit- 






icism 


Pope 


62 


The Deserted 






Village 


Goldsmith 


63 


Julian and 






Maddalo 


Shelley 


65 


Endymion, 






Book I 


Keats 


67 


Saul 


Browning 


127 


The Iliads of 






Homer, Book 




VIII, 553-561 




Translated by Chapman 


91 


A Mood 


Aldrich 


93 



Locksley Hall Tennyson 110 



168 



NOTES AND INDEXES 



Eighteen to twenty-two syllable 
eight accent verse, catalectic. 
Prevailing foot dactylic. 
Three to eighteen syllable verse. 
Free disposal of accent. Mixed 
prevailing foot anapaestic. 

THREE LINE STANZA 

Unrhymed four, five, and six ac- 
cent verse and each third verse 
with a refrain marking the end 
of the stanza. See Notes. Mixed 
prevailing foot trochaic. 
A a b rhyme in ten syllable five 
accent verse with unrhymed re- 
frain marking end of stanza. 
Verses thirteen and fourteen have 
double ending, and so eleven 
syllables. Prevailing foot iambic. 
A b a-b c b-c d c-d e d-e e rhyme 
in ten syllable five accent verse. 
Verses one and three have double 
ending and so eleven syllables. 
Foot iambic. 

FOUR LINE STANZA 

Unrhymed four and five syllable 
two accent verse, catalectic and 
with alliteration or beginning- 
rhyme regular in Anglo-Saxon 
verse. Foot dactylic. 
Unrhymed three and five accent 
verse. Foot iambic. 
A a a a rhyme in four accent 
verse with the last verse of each 
stanza a refrain which by its 
rhyme is made a part of the struc- 
ture of the stanza. The rhyme is 
identical throughout the poem. 
Foot dactylic. 



From Vastness 



Tennyson 145 



The Marshes 

of Glynn Lanier 



" The Old Fa- 
miliar Faces Lamb 



Idylls of the 
King (The 
Coming of 
Arthur) Tennyson 



Ode to the 

West Wind Shelley 



130 



112 



69 



70 



" England my 

Mother Watson 



vu 



Ode to Even- 
ing Collins 30 

Cavalier Tunes 
(III, Boot 
and Saddle) Browning 139 



NOTES AND INDEXES 



169 



A a a a rhyme in four accent 
verse. Foot iambic. 

A a a b rhyme in four and 
five accent verse with interior 
rhyme and each fourth verse an 
unrhymed five accent refrain 
marking end of stanza. See Notes. 
Foot anapaestic and iambic, re- 
frain iambic. 

A a b a rhyme in five accent 
verse. Foot iambic. 

A a b b rhyme in four accent 
verse. Seven syllable verse, foot 
trochaic, catalectic ; eight syllable 
verse, foot iambic. 

A a b b rhyme in four accent 
verse. Prevailing foot anapaestic. 
A a b b rhyme in six accent verse. 
Mixed prevailing foot iambic, but 
with anapaestic tendency. 

A a b b *rhyme in seven accent 
verse with each fourth verse a re- 
frain which by its rhyme is made 
a part of the structure of the 
stanza and the poem. The thir- 
teenth and fourteenth verses are 
truncated, and the seventeenth 
has an unaccented syllable pre- 
fixed. Foot anapaestic and iambic. 

A a b b rhyme in seven accent 
verse. Verses two and four have 
an unaccented syllable prefixed 
in first foot. See Notes. Foot 
iambic. 



From The Wood- 
spurge Rossetti 34 

" Summer's Last 
Will and 
Testament Nash 125 



Rubaiyat of 
Omar Khay- 
yam FitzGerald 71 

The Tyger Blake 105 



The Poplar 

Field Cowper 126 

The Grand- 
mother Tennyson 90 



" The May 
Queen 



Stanzas for 
Music 



Tennyson 128 



Byron 



92 



170 



NOTES AND INDEXES 



A b a b rhyme in four and six syl- 
lable two accent verse, four syl- 
lable verse catalectic. 
Foot dactylic. 

A b a b rhyme in two and 
four accent verse ; the shorter 
verse used to unify and mark the 
end of the stanza. Foot iambic. 

A b a b rhyme in two, three, 
and five accent verse. Foot iambic. 

A b a b rhyme in three and four 
accent verse; the third verse only 
having four accents. Foot iambic. 

A b a b rhyme in three accent 
verse alternating with four accent 
verse. Foot iambic. 



Same as above, except verses two 
and four have double ending. 
Foot iambic. 

A b a b rhyme in four accent 
verse. Foot iambic. 

A b a b rhyme in eight to 
twelve syllable, three and four 
accent verse. See Notes. Mixed 
prevailing foot anapaestic. 

A b a b rhyme in five accent 
verse. Foot iambic. 

A b a b rhyme in five accent 
verse. Foot iambic. 

Abba rhyme in four accent 
verse. See Notes. Foot iambic. 



ron 


i The Two 
Poets of 
Croisic 


Browning 


135 


(C 


Ode on Soli- 
tude 


Pope 


9 


(( 


Crossing 
the Bar 


Tennyson 


13 


c< 


The Elixir 


Herbert 


18 


(t 


Psalm XC, 1- 


-5, 





First Part 

(Man Frail 

and God 

Eternal) Watts 154 

The Brook Tennyson 20 



Lay of the 
Last Minstrel, 
Canto VI Scott 36 

Burial of Sir 
John Moore Wolfe 123 



The Timber Vaughan 73 

Elegy Written 
in a Country 
Churchyard Gray 74 

In Memoriam Tennyson 35 
Sections xv, xxx 



NOTES AND INDEXES 



171 



A b c b rhyme in three and From The Rime of 

four accent verse. Rhyme in third the Ancient 

stanza a b c c b and in fourth Mariner, 

stanza a b a b. Foot iambic. Part VII 

A b c b rhyme in three and " The Rime of 

four accent verse. Rhyme in the Ancient 

second stanza a b c c b and in Mariner, 

fourth stanza a b c b d b. Foot Part V 
iambic. 



Coleridge 22 



Coleridge 24 



FIVE LINE STANZA 








A b c c b rhyme in three and 


" The Rime of 






four accent verse in third stanza. 


the Ancient 






Foot iambic. 


Mariner, 








Part VII 


Coleridge 


22 


Same as above in second stanza. 


" The Rime of 
the Ancient 






. 


Mariner, 








Part V 


Coleridge 


24 


A b a b b rhyme in four accent 


" On his Mistris, 






verse. Foot iambic. 


the Queen of 








Bohemia 


Wotton 


38 


A b c c b rhyme in four accent 


" Peter Bell: 






verse. The tenth verse has but 


A Tale, 






three accents. Foot iambic. 


Parti 


Wordsworth 


39 


A b c d b rhyme in two accent 


" The Oak 


Tennyson 


99 



verse, catalectic. See Notes. 
Foot trochaic. 

SIX LINE STANZA 

A a a b a b rhyme in two and 
four accent verse with occasional 
double ending. Foot iambic. 



To a Mouse 
on Turning 
her up in her 
Nest, with 
the Plow, 
November, 
1785 Burns 



11 



172 



NOTES AND INDEXES 



A a b c c b rhyme in three and 
four accent verse. Verses three 
and six have three accents and 
divide the body of the stanza 
into two parts, but as they rhyme 
they bind these parts together. 
Foot iambic. 

A b a b c c rhyme in three and 
four accent verse, catalectic. 
Couplet added to a b a b rhyme 
making a three part stanza a b-a 
b-c c. Prevailing foot trochaic. 

A b a b c c rhyme in four 
accent verse. Foot trochaic. 

A b a b c c rhyme in seven and 
ten syllable four and five accent 
verse; seven syllable verse trun- 
cated. Foot iambic. 

A b c b b b rhyme in four and 
eight accent verse. Verses one 
and three have interior rhyme; 
each stanza has sporadic interior 
rhyme and lines ending b are cat- 
alectic. The verses in this selec- 
tion all have similar end-rhyme 
except the second and fourth in 
each stanza. Foot trochaic. 



From "Three years 
she grew in 
sun and 
shower" 



Wordsworth 25 



" Song: "Rarely, 
rarely 
comest thou" Shelley 



" The Tempest Palmer 



To the Moon Shelley 



The Raven 



Poe 



100 



106 



46 



108 



A b c b c b rhyme in two 


" Early Spring 


and three accent verse. Foot 




iambic. 




A b c b d b rhyme in three 


" The Rime of 


and four accent verse in fourth 


the Ancient 


stanza. Foot iambic. 


Mariner, 



Part V 



Tennyson 



Coleridge 24 



NOTES AND INDEXES 



173 



Abcbdd rhyme in four, five, 
and six accent verse; b b d d 
have double endings, verses one 
and three have interior rhymes, 
and verses five and six, except 
in second stanza, make a refrain 
of two verses. Prevailing foot 
iambic. 

A b c c b a rhyme in four ac- 
cent verse. Foot iambic, but with 
some anapaestic tendency. 

A b c c d d rhyme in two and 
five accent verse. Foot iambic. 

SEVEN LINE STANZA 

A b a b b a a rhyme in three 
and four accent verse, catalectic. 
Foot dactylic 

EIGHT LINE STANZA 

Ababaabc rhyme in three, 
four, and five accent verse. Verses 
one and three have interior 
rhymes and verse four repeats 
verse two. Mixed prevailing 
foot dactylic. 

Abababcc rhyme in five ac- 
cent verse. Foot iambic. 

Ababcdcd rhyme in two 
and three accent verse. Mixed 
prevailing foot anapaestic. 

Ababcdcd rhyme in two and 
four accent verse. Foot iambic. 

Ababcdcd rhyme in three 
accent verse. Prevailing foot 
anapaestic. 



From The Princess, 
Part in 



Tennyson 47 



" Meeting at 
Night 


Browning 


41 


" The Bird 


Vaughan 


16 


" Misconcep- 
tions 


Browning 


137 



The Princess, 

Part I Tennyson 138 



Isabella 



Keats 



76 



Lines: "When 
the lamp is 
shattered" 


Shelley 


118 


Content 


Vaughan 


7 


Alexander 
Selkirk 


Cowper 


121 



174 



NOTES AND INDEXES 



Abcdabca two accent verse. 
Mixed prevailing foot anapaestic. 

Abcbdefe rhyme in three 
accent verse alternating with four 
accent verse. Refrain marks the 
beginning of stanza. Foot iambic, 
but in refrain foot trochaic. 



From Pippa Passes 

(I, Morning) Browning 

" "I Remember, 

I remember" Hood 



117 



26 



INE LINE STANZA 








Ababbcbcc rhyme in five 


" The Faerie 






accent verse; the ninth verse 


Queene, 






an Alexandrine or six iambic. 


Book V, 






Foot iambic. 


Canto II, 43 


Spenser 


84 


Same as above. 


" The Minstrel 


Beattie 


85 


Same as above. 


" Childe Har- 
old's Pilgrim- 








age, Canto IV Byron 


86 


First stanza same as above; sec- 


" The Lotos- 






ond stanza ababccceeee 


Eaters 


Tennyson 


88 


rhyme in three, four, five, and six 








accent verse. Foot iambic. 








Abccabcee rhyme in two, 


"My heart 






three, four, and five accent verse. 


leaps up 






Foot iambic. 


when I be- 








hold" 


Wordsworth 


14 


EN LINE STANZA 








Aabbccddaa rhyme in 


" A Pindaric 






three, four, and five accent verse. 


Ode, to the 






Foot iambic. 


Immortal 
Memory and 
Friendship of 
that Noble 
Pair, Sir Lu- 
cius Cary and 


1 






SirH. Morison Jonson 


28 



NOTES AND INDEXES 



175 



Aabbcddeec rhyme in From Written in 



two and three accent verse. 
Prevailing foot iambic but with 
some anapaestic tendency. 



Ababbccdbd rhyme in 
two, four, five, and six accent 
verse. Foot iambic. 



TWELVE LINE STANZA 

Abcbdefeghih rhyme in 
two, three, and four accent verse 
with interior rhyme in alternate 
lines and occasional double end- 
ing. Mixed prevailing foot ana- 
paestic. 



March, while 
Resting on 
the Bridge at 
the Foot of 
Brothers 
Water 



Wordsworth 6 



The Shep- 
heardes Cal- 
ender 
(November) Spenser 



" The Cloud 



Shelley 



17 



119 



FOURTEEN LINE STANZA 

Aabbccddeeffgg rhyme 
in four and five accent verse. 
Foot iambic. 

A b b a a b b a-c d e c d e rhyme 
in five accent verse. A sonnet 
with strict Italian rhyme-scheme 
and structure. Foot iambic. 

Same as above except that strict 
Italian structure is departed from 
in division into two parts, the first 
part running over into the ninth 
line. Foot iambic. 



" Corinna 's going 

a-Maying Herrick 44 

" The Two Riv- 
ers, II Longfellow 77 



On his Blind- 
ness Milton 78 



176 



NOTES AND INDEXES 



Abbaabba-cdcdcd rhyme 
in five accent verse. A sonnet 
with strict Italian rhyme-scheme 
and structure. Foot iambic. 

Same as above except that strict 
Italian structure is departed from 
in division into two parts, the 
first part running over into the 
ninth line. Foot iambic. 

A b b a a b b a-c d c d e e rhyme 
in five accent verse. A sonnet 
same as above in rhyme-scheme 
except that the last two lines are 
couplets. Division regular into 
two parts. Foot iambic. 

A b a b c d c-d e f e f g g rhyme 
in five accent verse. English or 
Shakespearian form of sonnet. 
Foot iambic. 

Ababacdcedefef rhyme 
in five accent verse. A sonnet 
with rhyme-scheme irregular and 
structure a unit without division 
into two parts. Foot iambic. 



"With ships 
the sea was 
sprinkled far 
and nigh" Wordsworth 79 

"The world is 
too much 
with us, late 
and soon" Wordsworth 80 



Night and 
Death 



White 



81 



"When in dis- 
grace with 
fortune and 
men's eyes" Shakespeare 82 

Ozymandias 

of Egypt Shelley 83 



ARBITRARY STANZAS OF VARYING LENGTHS 



Aabccbddeffegghiihjj 
k 1 1 k rhyme in two and four syl- 
lable one accent verse, each third 
verse having a double ending. 
Foot iambic; but in each third 
verse, foot anapaestic. 
Chiefly couplets in two, four, and 
five accent verse with occasional 
double ending. Foot iambic. 



From Anacreontike Herrick 



Life 



Barbauld 



15 



NOTES AND INDEXES 



177 



Free disposal of rhyme and ac- 
cent in two, three, four, five, and 
six accent verse. Foot iambic. 



Free disposal of rhyme and ac- 
cent, in two, three, four, five, 
six, seven, and eight accent verse. 
Verses are mostly catalectic and 
poem has sporadic interior rhyme. 
Foot trochaic. 

Free disposal of rhyme in three, 
four, and five accent verse. Pre- 
vailing foot trochaic. 
Free disposal of rhyme in three, 
four, five, and six accent verse. 
Prevailing foot iambic. 
Free disposal of rhyme in four 
accent verse, without much re- 
gard to the number of syllables 
and with an occasional truncated 
verse. Mixed prevailing foot 
iambic. 

Free disposal of rhyme in four 
accent verse of seven and eight 
syllables; many couplets and 
some verses catalectic. Foot 
trochaic. 

Ababcdcdefef rhyme in 
four accent verse. Foot iambic. 



From Ode: Intima- 
tions of Im- 
mortality 
from Recol- 
lections of 
Early Child- 
hood 
" The Bells 



Wordsworth 94 
Poe 113 



Ode on the Death 

of the Duke of 

Wellington Tennyson 
Dover Beach Arnold 



Each and All Emerson 



150 
29 



The Belfry of 
Bruges 
(Carillon) 



The Angel in 
the House, 
Book I, 
Canto VIII 



Longfellow 107 



Patmore 



WRITERS 



Aldrich, Thomas Bailey lxx 

Arnold, Matthew xix, xcv 

Barbauld, Anna Letitia ix 

Beattie, James lxiii 

Blake, William lxxvii 
Browning, Robert xxviii, xlii, 

lxxxiv, xci, xciv, xcvi, XCVIII, 

cm 

Burns, Robert vi 

Byron, George Gordon Noel lxiv, 

lxix 

Chapman, George lxviii 

Clough, Arthur Hugh c 

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor xiv, xv 
Collins, William xx 

Cowper, William lxxxvii, xc 

Drayton, Michael lxvi 



Emerson, Ralph Waldo 


XXIX 


FitzGerald, Edward 


LI 


Goldsmith, Oliver 
Gray, Thomas 


XLVI 
LIII 


Herbert, George 
Herrick, Robert 
Hood, Thomas 


XII 

I, XXXI 

XVII 


Jonson, Ben 


XVIII 


Keats, John XL, 


XLVIII, LIV 


Lamb, Charles 
Lanier, Sidney 


LXXXII 
XCIII 



Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth lv, 
lxxiv, lxxix, xcix, cv 

Marlowe, Christopher • xliv 

Milton, John xxi, xxxviii, lvi, 

lxxvi 
Morris, William xliii 



Nash, Thomas 



lxxxix 



Palmer, Alice Freeman lxxviii 

Patmore, Coventry • xxx 

Poe, Edgar Allan lxxx, lxxxiii 

Pope, Alexander v, xlv 



Rossetti, Dante Gabriel 



xxiii 



Scott, Walter xxv 

Shakespeare, William xxxiv, xxxv, 

xxxvi, xxxvii, LX 

Shelley, Percy Bysshe xxxn, xlvii, 

L, LXI, LXXIII, LXXXV, LXXXVI 

Spenser, Edmund xi, lxii 

Tennyson, Alfred n, vn, xm, xxrv, 
xxxiii, xli, xlix, lxv, lxvii, lxxii, 
lxxxi, xch, xcvii, ci, civ 



Vaughan, Henry 



IV, x, LII 



Watson, William Preliminary Leaves 
Watts, Isaac cvi 

White, Joseph Blanco lix 

Whittier, John Greenleaf xxn 

Wither, George lxxv 

Wolfe, Charles lxxxviii 

Wordsworth, William in, vm, xvi, 

XXVII, XXXIX, LVII, LVIII, LXXI, CII 

Wotton, Henry xxvi 



FIRST LINES 

A blight, a gloom, I know not what, has crept upon my gladness, 93 

A man he was to all the country dear, 63 

A thing of beauty is a joy forever: 67 

All the world 's a stage, 50 

An idle poet, here and there, 43 

And in the frosty season, when the sun 55 

And such a fate I could not choose but fear 60 

And the sea lends large, as the marsh: lo, out of his plenty the sea 130 

And the smoke rose slowly, slowly, 101 

Around, around, flew each sweet sound, 24 

Art thou pale for weariness 46 

As at return of tide the total weight of ocean, 141 

As one 3 

As under cover of departing day 71 

Blow trumpet, for the world is white with May ! 69 

Boot, saddle, to horse, and away! 139 

But who the melodies of morn can tell ? 85 

"Courage!" he said, and pointed toward the land, 88 

First the Primrose courts his eyes; 102 

For take thy balance, if thou be so wise, 84 

Get up, get up for shame! The blooming morn 44 

Happy the man whose wish and care 9 

He roved among the vales and streams, 39 

He shall give His angels charge 106 

Hear the sledges with the bells, 113 

Hither thou com'st. The busy wind all night 16 

I am monarch of all I survey, 121 

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers, 119 

I cannot rest from travel; 57 



182 NOTES AND INDEXES 

I come from haunts of coot and hern, 20 

I did not think to shed a tear 52 

I have had playmates, I have had companions, 112 

I love all that thou lovest, 100 

I met a traveller from an antique land 83 

I remember, I remember 26 

I rode one evening with Count Maddalo 65 

I walk unseen 32 

In the ancient town of Bruges, 107 

In the mid days of autumn, on their eves 76 

It is not growing like a tree 28 

Leander, being up, began to swim, 61 

Life! I know not what thou art, 15 

Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloak'd clown 42 

Live thy Life, 99 

Many a hearth upon our dark globe sighs after many a vanish 'd face, 145 

Many a night from yonder ivied casement, ere I went to rest, 110 

Moor, moor the barge, ye gallant crew! 36 

My heart leaps up when I behold 14 

Mysterious Night! when our first parent knew 81 

Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, 123 

Now air is hush'd, save where the weak-eyed bat 30 

O lyric Love, half angel and half bird 149 

O River of Yesterday, with current swift 77 

O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you. 48 

O Wedding-Guest! this soul hath been 22 

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, 70 

Once more the Heavenly Power 4 

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; 49 

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I ponder'd, weak and weary, 108 

Our God, our help in ages past, 154 

Shut in from all the world without, 33 

Sleep on! 56 

Song is no bauble vii 



NOTES AND INDEXES 183 

Spring, the sweet Spring, is the year's pleasant king; 125 

Stars are of mighty use: the night 7 

Such a starved bank of moss 135 

Sunset and evening star, 13 

Sure thou didst flourish once! and many springs, 73 

Sweet and low, sweet and low, 138 

Sweet is the breath of Morn, her rising sweet, 54 

Swiftly they hurried away to the forge of Basil the blacksmith. 140 

Teach me, my God and King, 18 

The cock is crowing, 6 

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, 74 

The gray sea and the long black land; 41 

The poplars are fell'd; farewell to the shade 126 

The sea is calm to-night. 29 

The splendor falls on castle walls 47 

The wind flapp'd loose, the wind was still, 34 

The world is too much with us; late and soon, 80 

The year 's at the spring 117 

Then from her burnish'd gate the goodly glitt'ring East 89 

Then I, as was meet, 127 

Then, in such hour of need 136 

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, 86 

There 's not a joy the world can give like that it takes away, 92 

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, 94 

These beauteous forms, 147 

They spent all night in open field ; fires round about them shined. 91 

This is the spray the Bird clung to, 137 

This world 's no blot for us 58 

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! 152 

Three years she grew in sun and shower, 25 

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright 105 

'T is not enough no harshness gives offence, 62 

To the ocean now I fly, 104 

To-night the winds begin to rise 35 

Wee, sleekit, cow'rin', tim'rous beastie, 11 

When I consider how my light is spent 78 



184 NOTES AND INDEXES 

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, 82 

When the lamp is shatter'd, 118 

Whence is it, that the floweret of the field doth fade, 17 

Why do you look at me, Annie ? You think I am hard and cold ; 90 

With ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh, 79 

Yea, let all good things await 150 

You meaner beauties of the night 38 

You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear; 128 



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